The Commissioners and Marty discussed the roads. There was some discussion with the County Attorney about an antenna to be mounted on a water tower and how to handle the electrical meter.
Lawsuit Summons
The commissioners were served some papers regarding a civil suit with the sewer district. The County Attorney said that the lawsuit revolves around actions taken by the commissioners under 1927A 01.
Generator
At 10am Allen Warren moved $46,079 to purchase a generate from Cummings. The generator will be used to power the rock conveyers at the quarry. Chairman Endicott seconded it. A second motion was made to finance the purchase at a rate of 4% through Citizen’s Bank. Barry tractor offered a rate of 3.99%, but the Commissioners decided that with such a small difference, they should keep the note local.
Vacation
There was some discussion about the county vacation schedule. Since New Years day falls on a Sunday, the County should be closed Monday, January 2nd. Instead New Years Day was listed as being taken on December 27th — the day after Christmas.
Tax Sale and Convenience Store
Marty Rivers with Eagle Fuels wants to buy the convenience stores at either end of town. He asked to visit with the commissioners about the taxes. He talked to the people who had the first mortgage and Tom Hill. He wondered if he paid a lump sum payment if some of the taxes could be dropped. Commissioner Warren said that the only way the Commissioners could drop some of the property taxes or interest is if the bankruptcy court works out an agreement with the commissioners.
One of the pieces of property is 2191 Soldier Rd. It has unpaid taxes back to 2006. Mr. Rivers asked if he could pay part of the taxes to keep them from going to the tax sale. He was informed that the current tax sale only covers property that is delinquent from 2007 and prior so if he were to pay the taxes through 2007, the properties would be pulled off the tax sale. It was mentioned that only homestead properties can be partially redeemed and once a non-homestead property was delinquent and sold to the county, the entire amount of due taxes must be paid to keep it off of the sale.
Mr. Rivers was told that from a procedural standpoint, paying through 2007 would buy him some time before the properties that were delinquent from 2008 could be sold.
Mr. Rivers bought the gas station near Frontenac and leased it out to a local person who has been running it. He hopes to do the same thing with the stations in Fort Scott.
County Attorney’s Parking Spot
Keith Jeffers wants to take County Attorney Terri Johnson’s parking spot and put in a storage shed. The shed will be paid for by a grant for emergency preparedness. He is working on getting a grant to put in a generator. The Commissioner’s approved to buy the building and put it on Terri Johnson’s parking lot. They plan to assign her a different spot.
Dump Account
James Maine and Kimberly Alexander want to setup an account at the dump. They have a contract to do demolition on several trailers at the KOA camp from Jeff Michael. They want to be able take the debris to the dump and use the money from selling the scrap metal to pay the dump fees. The commissioners decided to give them a small amount of credit with the dump so they can proceed.
Was the Hill’s station in bankrupty in 2006, or it just one of the properties that we did not have enough properties to sell in 2010? This would be interesting to know.
I thought we did not have a decision on this one because what they are saying does not agree with the statutes, not that they give a darn but: “It was mentioned that only homestead properties can be partially redeemed and once a non-homestead property was delinquent and sold to the county, the entire amount of due taxes must be paid to keep it off of the sale.” Plus, aren’t we putting money into researching the properties for auction yet will allow those people, 3 months after the redemption period has ended to just “catch up” and be in the same position next year? I don’t understand bankruptcy in regard to the stations but the back taxes are a tremendous amount so maybe an interested business could make some kind of deal with BEDCO?
“He was informed that the current tax sale only covers property that is delinquent from 2007 and prior so if he were to pay the taxes through 2007, the properties would be pulled off the tax sale.”
We’ve been dealing with all this for how long now and the commissioners still don’t know what the law states?
See, I don’t understand why they have not come forward with the answers to the questions that they have said they were going to check on. UNLESS, it is connected to the investigation and they don’t want to comment until that is over but they could make that statement. The statutes are pretty easy to read so I don’t really see any questions that don’t have answers. She broke the law, many of them and we need to get our ducks in a row before they start running up charges on all of the work that needs to be done prior to an auction. Also, I have great concerns about whether or not all the escrow money went to where it should with the lack of record keeping and knowledge concerning laws and accounting principles so I hope that will be looked at. I continue to email Topeka as should everyone that wants to see justice.