The only person listed on the agenda at the start of the meeting was Marty giving the road report at 9 am and opening sealed bids for a generator at 10 am.
Roads Report
The Slick Rock Bridge project is going to incur an expense of $167,000. The $167,000 will be reimbursed by the Kansas T-Works program. However, the county needs to come up with the $167,000 payment to get the work done before the county can be reimbursed. The commissioners and the clerk determined that there was enough money available.
The current timeline looks like the bridge will take 5 months to build.
One of the county high loaders is using over a gallon of oil each day. It will cost $3,895 in parts to do a rebuild on the engine if the county does it themselves. A new engine would cost $20,200. The commissioners looked over different quotes and options. There was quite a bit of discussion regarding what would be most cost effective.
A citizen called in to ask how to go about protesting their taxes. Commissioner Warren conferred with the Clerk and told them they would need to speak with the Treasurer’s department who would help them setup a review with the county appraiser.
Fences
A citizen came in and asked about who is responsible for maintaining a fence between property when one piece of the property is in the CRP program. The commissioners said there is a $7.50 charge per commissioners to do a “fence viewing” where the Commissioners will come out and meet with both owners and then decree which owner is responsible for which part of the fence.
There was some discussion about how property boundaries works. Commissioner Coleman said that if you discover your neighbor has built a fence that is on your property, you have 15 years from the time it was discovered to correct the problem. Otherwise the fence becomes the new property line.
The citizen had to pick which two commissioners he wanted to have view the fence. Commissioner Coleman suggested that he choose Commissioner Warren and Chairman Endicott–even though that meant he would forgo the lucrative $7.50 payment for his service.
Generator Bids
There was a bid opening at 10 am for a generator. Commissioner Endicott had five sealed bids. They ranged from $46,079 to $92,500. The Commissioners decided to wait to review the bids before awarding the contract.
GPS/GIS Changing Acreage
Kansas Senator Bob Marshall came in at 10:00 to see what was going on and see what they though of the economic forum in Iola yesterday.
He wanted to talk about citizen Gary Harper who was concerned that his acreage has changed due to the GPS and the assessor process, but there has been no change to the deed. Senator Marshall said that if the assessed acreage changed, it needs to be changed on the deed. Mr Harper joined the conversation and Judy Orr was asked to come up to discuss the issue.
Senator Marshall asked whether or not GPS had been approved to be used for appraisals. Mr. Harper said that he had a 4.5 acre piece of property that has grown to 5.7 acres according to the appraiser’s office.
Senator Marshall pointed out that people can end up paying taxes on their property for years, but when they go to sell it, they can only sell it for the amount on the deed.
Shane Walker (Bourbon County GIS Coordinator) explained that the older maps were not “ortho rectified”. This means they didn’t take into consideration the curves in the land. So the amount of land may change because the property isn’t flat. He said that sometimes a 1,000 foot line on the old maps would turn into a 1,021 foot line.
Mr. Walker said that Mr. Harper’s property change had to do with the way the old maps were made and that instead of measuring to the middle of the river, the old maps just went to the edge of the bank. He also said that years ago land was recorded in an “Atlas Book” and in some cases what was actually sold was very different from what the person thought they had. So the “Atlas Book” may have recorded the land as 80 acres, but in some cases it might have only been 60 acres.
After Mr. Harper and Senator Marshall left Judy Orr (County Appraiser) came in with the deed in question. She read it and most of the measurements in the legal description said things like “about 20 rods more or less.” Shane Walker said that he had seen some descriptions that said, “to the big rock in the middle of the river” or even “to the big oak tree.”
Emergency Preparedness
Keith Jefferies (Bourbon County Emergency Manager) talked about some of the emergency preparedness that is taking place. He also said that there is a red flag fire warning today and has placed several public service announcements letting people know that they should not burn. They are working on organizing a deployable mortuary system staffed with volunteers.
County Treasurer
Susan Quick said that Dan Meara (the attorney handling the tax sale) should have everything ready by December 1st. Ms. Quick said that Mr. Meara had some cases ready to file, but she had told individuals that they had until December 1st to pay their taxes. She also said it wasn’t fair if some people had the foreclosures started before others because it would give some people more time to pay.
The Commissioners said that they had planned on the lawsuits being filed in groups so they wouldn’t be done all at the same time. The Treasurer said that they had always filed them all together. She feels that the Commissioners have “kicked the rug out from under her” in a number of things and asked the Commissioners to wait until the December 1st date to keep things fair and consistent with what the public had been told by the Treasurer’s office.
She said that waiting until December 1st is legal and that is the way they have always done it. Commissioner Allen said that “this is a new day.” It was brought up that the tax statements said to pay Bourbon County Treasurer Susan Quick. The Commissioners asked why this had changed. Ms. Quick said that this is how it has always been and asked,”Do you think I’m stupid enough to take the checks that are made out to me and cash them?”
She said she would change it next year to just say Bourbon County Treasurer.
Chairman Endicott said he would talk with Mr. Meara and ask him to hold off on filing anything until December 1st.
The Treasurer said that she has collected $58,938 in back taxes since October. She also said that the properties that are not homesteads can be sold one year sooner than the other properties. Joanne Long said that in the past they have only sold properties after 3 years in order to avoid difficulties in determining what is homestead and what is not.
The Treasurer said that all the money in escrow accounts from the payment plan has been applied to the taxes. Commissioner Warren asked if anyone was still on the payment plan. Ms. Quick said that it had been discontinued and no one is currently on the payment plan. Ms. Quick said, no one is being held off of the tax sale.
She gave the commissioners a list of $231,000 in taxes from properties from 2008. They asked for the same report for 2009 and 2010.
So November 30th is the last day people can pay taxes to avoid being on the tax sale. After this point, the property cannot be partially redeemed and the entire amount of unpaid taxes must be paid to prevent a sale.
Let’s see, I don’t even know where to begin. I get a feeling that at least one or more of the commissioners are fed up with the crap that Susan Quick has caused. “Pulled the rug out from under her” and I am thinking my approach would have been “throw the rug over her and haul it to the curb” so I’m considering her lucky! I like Commissioner Allen’s comment about it being a new day. Let’s see would any of us think she would be stupid enough to cash the checks made out to her? Foolish enough? In need because she suffers economic hardship? Also, Mrs. Quick said there was no payment plan and that no one was being held off the tax sale but when it comes to believing what Mrs. Quick might think……………….. Was glad to see the money in the escrow account applied to taxes because that escrow account should never have been set up for delinquent taxes and I found no examples of such a thing existing in the real world. And, for Susan Quick to talk about what is fair and what is not, is that a joke or what? If this hadn’t of cost us thousands of dollars, it would be funny but since it did, either ouster or recall MUST set the record straight that government corruption in Bourbon County is coming to an end!
The commissioners were correct in asking why the statements said to make the check payable to Susan Quick. She said it had always been that way and that is not correct. I checked statements from prior years and they said “Bourbon County Treasurer, Susan Quick” and not just “Susan Quick”. I always made our check out to “Bourbon County Treasurer”! I would suggest not making them out exclusively to “Susan Quick” but I guess you figured that one out.
When I look at the payment coupons at the bottom of my tax statement it says, “Make checks payable to BOURBON COUNTY TREASURER” and lists the address. This is on the paper titles, BOURBON COUNTY REAL ESTATE TAX STATEMENT. Did you get a different statement from everyone else or is are you looking in a different place?
Look at the front of the page on the right hand side under the “Tax Summary” block. Mine says to write the check to Susan Quick and nothing about Bourbon County Treasurer as it did in prior years. I am not amused by this because of the possibilities that it opens up!
Should the tax sale of been listed on that agenda? It looks like much more than someone just bringing up something on the spur of the moment. Does that violate any rules? Not that they care about rules but some of us do.
Things don’t have to be on the agenda. If you have something you want to talk t the commissioners about you can just walk in and they will try to make room for you. The agenda generally determines who goes first, but the commissioners do a good job of accommodating everyone–including county employees who need to talk to them.