The Bourbon County Commission addressed restructuring county administration, animal control, and public forums on zoning in their meeting this week.

Old Business

Policy and Procedures

Letter Head

Commissioner Mika Milburn brought examples of letterheads made with a smaller font than the current letterhead for use on all official county documents to make them uniform. She proposed two letterheads for Bourbon County, one for books, cover pages, and official documents, and the other for documents that will have the larger letterhead style, where feasible. She instructed that the county keep its current letterhead with the font changed to match the new, smaller letterhead the board chose.

Milburn moved to approve the letterhead per KSA 19-2126. The commission approved.

Dump Fees for Employees

“So that’s complicated,” said Milburn.

Commissioner David Beerbower said he had received emails about the policy of allowing county employees to dump for free as it pertains to the IRS definition of fringe benefits. “I’m not even sure why this has become such an urgent topic,” he said. This benefit has been in place longer than any of the commissioners have been alive, since before the current county landfill started. “It’s always been kind of an unwritten rule, but in today’s society we can’t do that,” he said. He talked about the need to get numbers from payroll as well as other information.

“I think we need to table it and figure it out…There’s more benefits than just the dump fees that we got to figure out. There’s just a lot to consider,” said Commissioner Brandon Whisenhunt.

They tabled it until June 9.

Separation of Public Works and Landfill Departments

Beerbower said the original idea came from Whisenhunt and has been a part of the commissioner’s discussion for a number of months.

“The landfill has its own budget,” said Whisenhunt, of about $800,000 for 2025. “There’s not any reason why it can’t stand on its own, be its own budget item, have its own supervision. And then that person reports directly to the commission,” he said.

“What’s driving us to make this choice?” asked Milburn. She said she would like a risk assessment, benefit analysis, and cost analysis before making the decision to separate the landfill from the Public Works Department. Beerbower said they end up “spinning our tires” when trying to get a cost analysis, due to the cost of getting a cost analysis.

“2025 is the perfect way to go because in 2026 we go to five commissioners, so if this experiment does not work with the 2025 budget as it stands, we can reverse this,” said Beerbower.

“I’m not willing to experiment with taxpayer money,” said Milburn. Pointing out that “everything costs.”

Someone in the audience asked what the benefit of the restructuring would be. Beerbower said that restructuring is needed because the county needs change, as continuing to do things the way they always have will not lead to improvement. “The advantage of it is that they’re smaller, more workable departments,” Beerbower said. It will be more economical in the long run to streamline things. However, he did not have numbers to share to support his position.

“The people that I was trying to work with to develop an overall plan…nobody wants to work out a possibility of change…it’s all about protecting what they’ve got,” said Beerbower.

Another person asked what the benefit to the public would be of making this change.

Whisenhunt explained that the landfill, as a government entity, is not allowed to make a profit, but if they can lower operating costs, they can pass those savings on to customers in the form of lower rates or fewer tax dollars being spent to operate the landfill.

One audience member said that Bourbon County charges more than surrounding counties for waste disposal.

Haulers in attendance expressed concern about landfills in the area increasing their rates and suggested up-charging for non-local dumping, since local businesses are already supporting the county through their taxes. They also expressed concern about giving free dumping to county employees and charging everyone else extra to make up the difference.

“We’re not changing anything from the operational standpoint other than the supervision of it,” said Beerbower. “That’s not a good enough reason to separate it,” said Milburn.

“It’s about the money. I think we need to do a cost analysis on everything,” said Milburn, addressing the issue of restructuring county departments.

Jennifer Hawkins, Deputy Clerk, talked about the budget reports, showing all the money that’s come in and gone out of the various funds, including the landfill. The report shows that in 2025, the landfill has incurred $229,724 in expenses while bringing in $178,175 in revenue. Whisenhunt pointed out that the negative balance is in part due to the large building payment made at the first of the year. “It should start coming back,” he said.

Whisenhunt said his experience in the trash business has shown him how much money it could make if it was prioritized. “I work for the biggest trash company in the world…and I just see how trash can make money.” It has to go from being a second thought to make that profit.

Whisenhunt made a motion that the county separate them but didn’t get seconded.

The commission voted to table the issue to June 16 to allow time to find and crunch the numbers to support their disparate claims.

Beerbower invited the vocal audience members to come back June 16 when the item will be brought up again.

New Business

Animal Control

The commissioners spoke over the phone with Ealyn Taylor about animal control issues in the county. She said she was coming to them on behalf of animals being dumped in the county. For the last three years, she’s been picking up, vetting, and re-homing animals dumped in the county. The change to the city’s animal control laws has led to an excessive amount of dumping, especially in the last two years. She’s at capacity and needs help or land to be able to keep doing the work she’s been doing. She asked the county if there is any land available to start housing animals that are being dumped.

“I do anything that I possibly can for the community as far as the animals go, but I’m at the point where I need some help on getting them some sort of temporary housing,” she said. The shelter here is a kill shelter, and she’s trying to keep the animals from dying.

“I have a plan for a self-sustaining sanctuary. I’ve been looking for acreage,” said Taylor.

Beerbower said The first step in this process is looking at the list of land that Bourbon County owns and then start chipping away at the process, including the legal ramifications.  Taylor said she would apply for non-profit status if the county could offer her land for this purpose.

“I know we all care,” said Beerbower. Hopefully, others will get involved and offer assistance.

“I need a little boost up in the right direction from the community,” said Taylor, thanking the commissioners for their help.

Zoning Advisory Board

The citizen zoning advisory board is planning three public forums scheduled for May 14 at 6 p.m. in Uniontown, May 20, 6 p.m. in Fulton, May 21, 6 p.m. at Memorial Hall in Fort Scott.

Beerbower moved to extend the board’s deadline for presenting recommendations to the county commission to Monday, June 9, to allow them time to meet again after the public forums.

He also explained the board’s decision not to post their meetings to YouTube. The meetings are open to the public, which is all that is required by state statutes.

Freeman Timeline Extension

Freeman has asked to extend their deadline for opening the Emergency Room from June to September 1, 2025. Part of the reason is getting it up to the new ADA codes, particularly the fire monitoring equipment. The company that does that is backlogged.

Whisenhunt moved that the chairman sign the extension, and the commission approved.

County Cameras

The commission spoke with Public Works Director Eric Bailey and Brian Murphy, Advisory Deputy to the Sheriff’s Department about the cameras used throughout county facilities.

The purpose of the cameras is for supervisors to be able to monitor their departments when not on site, said Milburn.

Murphy advised that the county be sure supervisors can access the footage of their own department only for monitoring when they are off-site.

Beerbower expressed concern that the proper chain of evidence of footage be maintained in case of criminal activity being caught on camera.

Beerbower moved that all camera systems be placed under the operational control of the sheriff’s department and transfer all equipment and programs to be housed independently at the sheriff’s office. The motion died for lack of second.

Milburn moved to bring the discussion to a county work-session for further discussion on June 23.

Commissioner Comments

Milburn asked that commissioners not introduce motions in the commissioners’ comments section of the meeting, but add them to the agenda in the business section. She also apologized for the lengthy meeting at the beginning of her time in office and said she will make an effort not to overload the agenda in the future.

Whisenhunt agreed with Milburn. He said it’s important for the commissioners to be transparent with one another through the meeting agenda process, since they aren’t permitted to talk to one another outside of the meetings themselves.

Beerbower spoke of the election to add three new commissioners, saying that currently one candidate for District 4 and no candidates for District 5 have filed. The deadline to file is noon on June 2. He expressed concern that there be candidates for those seats. He was advised that many people wait to file for election until the last minute.

Whisenhunt said in his radio address he will mention the need for nurses and support staff at Freeman Hospital.