Commissioner David Beerbower started the September 8 meeting with a discussion of meeting limits. He addressed the issues of establishing a protocol for setting a time limit on their meetings and work sessions because “marathon meetings” work against the democratic process when they cause the desire to get done to become everyone’s goal. He proposed stopping the meetings 2 hours in and then reviewing where they are on the agenda, moving remaining urgent items forward, and tabling the remainder. He also said that anyone who has traveled a distance to address the board should be moved to the top of the agenda following the approval of consent agenda items.
County Clerk Susan Walker addressed concerns with the agenda and getting it finalized and accomplished in a timely manner.
Tran said that it was important for commissioners to have all the information needed for making decisions ready at each meeting, rather than treating the meeting at the work sessions.
“If we’re going to put something on the agenda, we should have the supporting documentation with it,” agreed Beerbower.
Beerbower moved to adopt the procedure outlined initially as well as setting the preliminary agenda for the next meeting at the end of each regular meeting. The motion carried.
Consent Agenda
Approval of 09.05.25 Accounts Payable Totaling $308,641.44
Approval of 09.05.25 Payroll Totaling $326,473.16
Salary Resolution, 3125
The County Clerk, Susan Walker, said the resolution reduced the county clerk’s pay by $10,000 and the register of deeds by $5,000.
Milburn said it was being done in according with the vote from 8/11.
Walker noticed the addition of a finance person for $25,000, which job she was doing for about $3,500, and a new administrative assistant position for $35,000. The $35,000 they were spending was to keep Jennifer in house to assist the clerks office as well as to learn some of the treasurer’s duties, which was a one-time thing.
Walker also said that she didn’t receive the information in the resolution ahead of time.
“My job duty as clerk is to be secretary to the board,” per state statute, she said. She is to record their proceedings and shall keep the receipts and expenditures of the county, entering them by fund. Despite the job of payroll being transferred to another entity, she is still responsible for recording payroll and benefits.
She asked the commission to reconsider the outsourcing of payroll even though they are currently in the process of making that change over.
She also compared Bourbon County pay to that of similar counties. Bourbon used to be the lowest, but she has received additional pay for preparing the budget, which most counties don’t do, but hire an outside firm. Average pay for a county clerk is $72,000, so she doesn’t feel that Bourbon County is out of line with other counties. She acknowledged that it was a big jump in pay this year, but said that there had been no consideration for several years prior to that.
Beerbower amended his motion to pay the consent agenda and discuss the resolution separately.
Milburn said that historically, when a resolution is approved at a previous meeting, as resolution 3125 was, it is moved to the consent agenda at a following meeting, once the resolution itself has been prepared.
Beerbower assented and the board approved the new salary resolution unanimously, along with the remainder of the consent agenda. The resolution will go into effect Jan. 1, 2026.
Lora Holdridge, Register of Deeds-Budget Question
Holdridge said her department’s been cut more than $25,000 and is down to one full-time and one part-time person.
“A part-time person does not care about what is very important for my office to be correct,” because they don’t get the benefits that full-time employees get, she claimed.
Holdridge said that the title companies are catching several mistakes from previous part-time employees.
“I can’t run my office on the amount that you’ve cut me,” she said.
Commissioner Mika Milburn said that they were taking her back to the 2023 budget situation.
Holdridge said she could make up the difference in salary from her department’s budget and asked the county to cover her benefits from the general fund.
The commission decided to move the discussion into an executive session at their next meeting so the employees wouldn’t be identified.
95th Street South of Unique
In July of 2021, the county public works director said that the county would maintain a portion of the drive to help the other landowner get to his field. Title insurance can’t be issued based on the minutes of a meeting, but needs a resolution that the commission will do the maintenance, or will not.
County Attorney Bob Johnson asked for the reason the commission needs to make a resolution. Milburn explained that one property owner wants to sell the back half of their lot and wants to make sure it’s not landlocked. Holdridge left in the middle of discussion as Milburn and Beerbower talked it over.
The commission agreed that it was not in the best interests of the county to make the resolution.
Executive Session: Pursuant to KSA 75-4319 (b)(1) to discuss personnel matters of individual non-elected personnel to protect their privacy. Tran requests the meeting with the three commissioners and counsel for 25 minutes.
The commission returned to session with action. Tran made motion to engage Dr. Cohen on the issue for administrative action and the motion carried.
Public Comments for Items Not on The Agenda
An audience member gave a shout out to the mower at the corner of 135th and Poplar Road. He did an outstanding job and it was greatly appreciated.
Old Business
Mapleton Road
Union Street runs north and south, connecting HWY 31 to 125th in Mapleton.
Public comments from Mike Houston at an earlier meeting asked the county to maintain Union Street, which the county has historically done. He said that the town no longer has the grant they had used to fund the maintenance of the road, so he asked if the county could take it back over.
Commissioner Samuel Tran went to see the road and spoke with Public Works personnel.
“It needs help,” said Tran. He said when he asked, records show it hasn’t been maintained by the county in recent history.
Tran’s information said it would cost the county $36,729 to pave Union Street in Mapleton from Hwy 31 to 125th.
He compared it to the paving of Maple Road from where it enters Union Town to where it hits Hwy 3 because it’s an interconnecting road, like Union Street.
Tran advocated for the county to do the patching of the road. He also warned that requests like this should be taken on a case-by-case basis, but he also said that it is important to leave the county better than they found it.
Beerbower said that this road is not on the current asphalt plan, but could be reviewed next year when the commission reaches 5 members.
Milburn asked how the small municipalities patch their roads. “They don’t” was the short answer.
Audience member, Mr. Walker, said it’s a highly traveled road and also a school bus route.
A representative from EMS also spoke up and said they use it to service the EMS needs of the county too.
Tran asked for permission to tell public works to do it if they have the time and resources to get it done this year, and also talk to the city of Mapleton about possibly paying for the materials.
The issue was tabled until next week
Software program
Beerbower received an email from Diligent offering digital services for government use, including streaming and agenda building. The cost, starting at $8,500, is prohibitive for the county at this time.
Tran said they should hold off due to current projects with Stronghold. “We have a lot on our plate and we still have a budget to get done,” said Tran.
Susan Walker said that the Adobe agenda she sends out allows you to jump to attachments. The SharePoint platform the county uses offers agenda building already. She also cautioned that putting all of their agenda and minutes on the website causes the website to run out of space, leading to frequent archiving.
Beerbower said he would reach out to Diligent and tell them the county cannot use their services at this time.
Hospital Equipment Update
Beerbower said there are three unsold lots from the govdeals auction program. The commission decided to list them a third and final time and dispose of the items if they don’t sell in the next auction cycle.
Security Cameras
Beerbower asked if the county has a security camera policy in place. He wants to make sure that the policy doesn’t violate employees’ privacy. He will talk with Dr. Cohen, the county’s HR department, and bring it back in two weeks.
Craw-Kan
The commission decided to have counsel look at their contract with Craw-Kan so they can add an exit clause for the county.
Elm Creek Quarry
Tran, commission liaison to the public works department asked if the commissioners would approve the opening up of a quarry at Elm Creek Lake, which was directed by the board of commissioners two boards ago. The original plan was to have been executed in May of 2025.
Beerbower said he was a part of that commission and approved the initial proposal after assurances were made to citizens in the area regarding noise and dust control. He then stated that he has been opposed to the county owning its own quarry since he campaigned for office. He has doubts about the viability of the quarry and its benefit to the county. He asked for a comprehensive cost and environmental analysis to determine if it would benefit the county.
Tran said it would remove the competition with the private sector, providing 45+ years of rock. He also said that the county has all state-required documentation and engineer approval.
Beerbower expressed concerned about the impact on the usability of the lake.
“I’m going to keep opposing county-owned rock quarries until somebody can show me numbers from a third party that isn’t biased towards one way or the other,” he reiterated.
Tran said the possibility of losing the two quarries they currently lease (one of them may be played out soon) means the county should at least consider the Elm Creek Lake option.
Beerbower said he understands wanting to have the county own the quarry so they can’t be burned by leasing them. He asked if any counties in their area own their own quarries.
Mr. Smith, former licensed professional engineer in the audience, asked who the approving engineer was. He said it should not have been approved without an economic discussion for the county and an environmental discussion for the state.
He also announced he would be running for county commissioner in the upcoming election as a write-in candidate.
Mr. Walker, who lives next to a rock quarry, thinks people overblow the traffic and noise caused by quarries. He said they are a sign of improvement for the county. He also said the roads have improved tremendously under the previous public works director, and expressed concern that the county is going backwards without access to enough rock.
Tran said he wants to table the issue indefinitely and get more information.
Freeman Agreement
Beerbower made a motion to approve the second amendment to the Emergency Department Funding Agreement, amending the agreements from Dec. 5, 2024 and May 12, 2025. Quarterly itemized accounting will be provided to the county by Freeman and some of the information will not be able to be released to the public as the hospital is now operating, and that information will be about private individuals.
It was approved.
Act/Web Page Access
Milburn said the county web page has a single administrator and needs another. She said the county also needs another account holder for CrawKan and Verizon, as well as another administrator for the county’s Facebook page.
She asked if Beerbower was willing, then moved to make him a full admin of those accounts. Motion carried.
New Business
Freeman/EMS
Milburn explained that when Mercy had a hospital in Fort Scott, it also managed the EMS department. Freeman is willing to talk with Bourbon County about doing so as well.
Tran asked what the end goal of moving EMS over to Freeman is. Milburn said if the financial burden on the county can be lifted and the services provided to the citizens maintained, it would be good for Bourbon County to transfer the burden to Freeman.
Tran asked what would happen if Freeman went “belly up.” Milburn said the county would take it back on. Tran asked if it would be painful to do so.
“Nothing’s painless…everything here is painful,” said Milburn.
Milburn said she’s asking to continue to have conversations with Freeman and wants to know if the commission will listen. Tran said he would listen.
Beerbower said he is not in favor of it. One reason is that the hospital just opened and it’s premature to ask them. EMS isn’t a burden, nor a tax-levy-funded department, and their income will go up due to an increase in transfers from Freeman. He wants to wait another year to see how things are going. He doesn’t want to have to start all over again with the county running EMS.
“I think we’re rushing it,” said Beerbower. He advocated for waiting until they had five-commission board.
“You’ve already crossed the line,” he said, when Milburn asked if wanted her to stop gathering information to bring to the board. He said that as the liaison to Freeman, a management method recommended by county HR director, Dr. Cohen, he should have been asked to work on the issue.
“So you want me to ask for permission to find ways to save this county money?” asked Milburn.
“I want you to not step on somebody else’s toes doing it,” replied Beerbower.
Tran stepped in and asked everybody to step back and take a deep breath. He claimed to understand each of the other commissioner’s position. He said they need to remember to work as a team.
He agreed that it is premature to hand over EMS to Freeman.
He also said that the reason Freeman is willing to talk is because Milburn is a sitting commissioner, but that they have taken on more monetarily than is currently known.
Greg Motley said he had spoken to Freeman about this issue, but they really don’t have any interest in taking on EMS right now. “They are sinking big money into this project,” he said of the hospital, and they have fewer personnel than Mercy had. The correct timing of this discussion should be after they get their cash flow up and running.
Anne Dare spoke up and said the commission should stick with the liaison positions and stop confusing the county. The commission should also watch how they treat each other. “I would really like for you to get back to those responsibilities,” she said.
Terry, EMS director asked: “Where has EMS cost the county money outside of what you subsidize?” She said she saved the county $165,000 in grants in the last year. The county is required by state statute to subsidize anybody, whether the county or Freeman. Last year it cost $212,000. When Mercy was in charge of EMS, the county subsidized them by almost $350,000.
Milburn said she couldn’t see why people were so offended by the topic. She claimed that she brought it up multiple times in past meetings, and the purpose of the conversations is just to explore options.
Tran said that change scares people and brings out their defensiveness.
“The bottom line is this: that you had a liaison process that you overstepped and you’re going to try to justify it saying that you brought it before this board before,” said Beerbower as Milburn interrupted, saying she wouldn’t accept his comment.
“As far as I’m concerned, we’re done,” said Beerbower.
No further action was taken.
190th Street – Milburn
Milburn said a taxpayer reached out to her, asking that the county consider creating a benefit district to maintain the private road he lives on. He and the other three homeowners would pay the county for the maintenance. County Counsel will advise, Sept. 29
Planning Commission Selection Process
Beerbower asked if the other commissioners were ready to make their selections. Per the resolution, each commissioner was to have two members and the commission as a whole would vote on the seventh member.
Milburn was not ready, as she had to check the districts of the people she wanted to appoint.
The item was tabled until the next meeting, Sept. 15.
Commission Comments
Milburn thanked her fellow commissioners and the citizens of Bourbon County for putting in the work to make necessary changes to improve the county.