Bourbon County will auction 104 properties at its tax sale on Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 11 a.m. at Memorial Hall in Fort Scott. The map below shows where they are. Click any pin to see what the county lists for that property.

Open the map on its own page (easiest on a phone). The Full screen button in the map’s top corner fills your screen.

How to use the map

• Click a pin or a name in the list to see the tax ID, owner as shown on the tax rolls, legal description and address. Each property also has links to Google Maps, Street View, the county’s tax search and parcel map, and the page of the county’s list it is on.
• Search by address, owner, tax ID or any word in the legal description.
• Filter by town, or by addition or plat. The addition comes from the start of each legal description.
• Owners with 2+ parcels shows owners with more than one property on the list.
• Only what’s on the map limits the list to the area you are looking at. Zoom in on a neighborhood to see just those properties.
• Switch to Aerial with the layer button to see each lot from above. Numbered circles are groups of pins; click one to zoom in.
• Pin colours show the town. The county’s list does not include amounts owed, so the map cannot sort or colour by amount.
• Each property has its own link. Copy the address bar on the full-page map after clicking a pin to share that property.

How the properties were placed

The county’s list gives a street address for each property but no map coordinates. FortScott.biz looked up each address with the State of Kansas’s public address locator, which uses the county’s 911 address points. Only the street address and town were sent.

• 92 properties are pinned at their 911 address point.
• 1 (324 S GARRISON, Fort Scott) is placed approximately, along its street.
• 11 are not on the map because the county lists them with a house number of 0. They are below, and at the bottom of the map’s list, so nothing from the county’s list is left out.

A pin shows where the address is, not the property’s boundaries. Check the legal description and the county’s records before bidding.

Not on the map (11)

The full list of all 104 properties, in a table, is in our tax sale list story.

Sources: 2026 Bourbon County Tax Sale Property List and the Bourbon County Treasurer’s page, retrieved Oct. 30, 2026. Map: Leaflet; street map © OpenStreetMap contributors; aerial imagery from USGS The National Map; locations from the Kansas DASC address locator.

Bourbon County Commissioner Samuel Tran ended the Oct. 19 commission meeting by accusing three fellow commissioners of making up their minds together before they ever sat down.

“Clearly the decision was already made by the three of you before you came to the table,” Tran told Gregg Motley, Joe Allen and David Beerbower. “Can I prove it? No. But your action speaks louder than words.”

What set it off

Earlier that night, the commission voted 3-2 to hire a local human resources provider. Allen made the motion and Motley seconded. Motley, Allen and Beerbower voted yes. Tran and Commissioner Mika Milburn-Kee voted no.

In his closing comments, Tran said the three vote together on “every one of these votes” and that people had been calling him about it. “You three voted together offline,” he said. “You did it before, you did it again tonight. … One day you’re going to get caught.”

Motley, who chairs the commission, answered: “Everything Commissioner Tran just said is wrong.” He then adjourned the meeting.

As the meeting ended, Tran told Motley, “Grow a backbone, Gregg.” Beerbower, echoing Tran’s words, said, “The only thing I can say, Sam, is we didn’t get caught.” Tran answered, “I’m right here, David. I’ll be out in the parking lot.” Some people in the room told FortScott.biz they understood that Tran was issuing a challenge to fight Beerbower outside. As far as is known, it didn’t come to fisticuffs in the parking lot.

What the law says

Kansas has an open meetings law so that public business happens where the public can see it.

Bourbon County has five commissioners. Three is a majority. Under the law, when a majority of the commission discusses county business, that is a meeting, and it has to be open to the public (K.S.A. 75-4317a). That applies in person, by phone or through other back-and-forth messages.

The law also covers a chain of private conversations. If one commissioner talks to a second, and the second talks to a third, and any of them is trying to reach agreement on a vote, that chain has reached a majority and must be open too (K.S.A. 75-4318(f)).

Two commissioners talking privately is allowed, because two of five isn’t a majority, as long as it doesn’t become part of a chain that reaches a third.

What the commissioners say

Asked about Tran’s accusation that the three had worked out their votes outside the meeting, commissioners told FortScott.biz they never discussed their HR votes with one another.

“I would never talk to more than 1 other commissioner about a topic outside of a meeting,” Commissioner Joe Allen said. “On the topic of HR, I never spoke to another commissioner about their stance on HR submissions outside of a meeting. I wasn’t for sure I would even get a second last night or have the majority. It’s just what I thought was best for county.”

Tran said himself that he could not prove his accusation. His view seemed to be based on the assumption three commissioners wouldn’t independently decide to support the same motion without coordination. However, the commissioners say they reached their decisions on their own and had no idea how anyone else would vote until the actual vote.

Every year, Kansas checks each county’s property values. Bourbon County failed again.

Commissioners heard the results Oct. 19 from Mike Dallman of the state’s Property Valuation Division, by speakerphone. A 2016 law, K.S.A. 79-1404b, requires that conversation in an open meeting whenever a county fails.

How the check works

The county appraiser values every property, and landowners get a notice by March 1. For most property, Kansas law says that value should be what it would sell for. Farmland uses a separate formula. A home’s taxable value is 11.5% of its appraised value.

To test the values, the state looks at properties that actually sold. If a house sold for $100,000 and the county had it valued at $80,000, the ratio is 80%. The state lines up the ratios and takes the middle one, the median. The target is 90% to 110%.

It also checks whether similar properties are valued alike.

What the state found

The study used 112 home sales and 19 commercial and industrial sales from 2025.

• Homes: The median was 77.7%, about 78 cents on the dollar. Home values were consistent. “It’s just a matter that the values are low,” Dallman said.
• Businesses: The median was 66.5%, and similar properties were valued very differently. Dallman said commercial is hard statewide, with few sales to compare.

The county must also follow about a dozen procedures, such as reviewing a sixth of all properties yearly. It earned 47 of 50 points. Five more came off because the yearly market-trend notice wasn’t published at least 10 business days before value notices were mailed, as K.S.A. 79-1460a requires.

With 21.1 of 50 points from the sales test, the total was 63.1 out of 100. Passing is 75.

Why it matters

Property tax is supposed to be shared fairly. When some properties are valued closer to their real worth than others, their owners pay more than their share. State school-funding formulas also use local values.

Low values don’t automatically mean lower tax bills. Each taxing body sets its rate by spreading its budget across the value in its area. When taxing entities vote to exceed the “revenue neutral rate” it means they will be taking more in taxes than they did the year before. All else being equal, that determines whether the taxes go up or down.

Not new

State reviews found the county out of compliance every year from 2021 through 2024. In August 2025, then-appraiser Matt Quick put the home ratio at 72.8% and said the county was last in range around 2019 or 2020. State and county officials have blamed a statewide jump in sale prices after COVID.

What’s next

The state isn’t ordering values raised. “Whether you want to raise them or not, we leave that between the commission and the appraiser,” Dallman said. But mid-year 2026 medians for homes and businesses are “considerably lower,” he said, and “most likely I’ll be talking to you this time next year.” He added that the Statehouse has been asking more about counties out of compliance.

Quick resigned this August. Dallman praised new appraiser Danielle Louk and said the state gives a new appraiser a year of leeway on steps that aren’t required by law.

FORT SCOTT — The Bourbon County Commission voted 3-2 Monday night to hire a local human resources provider for one year. Commissioners Samuel Tran and Mika Milburn-Kee voted no; Tran objected that the proposals should have gone through a formal selection process. Earlier in the meeting, a state official told commissioners the county fell short of the state’s appraisal compliance standard, and four Public Works employees spoke in support of Public Works Director Kenny Allen.

Chairman Gregg Motley presided, with Commissioners Joe Allen, David Beerbower, Mika Milburn-Kee and Tran.

Agenda changes, minutes and bills

The commission agreed to interrupt public comment for a scheduled call with the state, then resume comments. Beerbower asked to postpone the executive session on sheriff’s office personnel until next week and struck the backhoe bids from old business. Tran added Range Road under new business, and Motley added the treasurer’s quarterly reports. The board approved the agenda as amended and the minutes of the Oct. 5 and Oct. 9 meetings.

Beerbower corrected the first accounts payable batch, listed in the packet at $334,783.98, to $428,742.99, saying the total had not finished adding up. The second batch was $259,024.30. Tran pointed to county credit card charges of $69.75 at Holmtown and $63.74 at Nu Grille, plus a Hampton Inn charge of about $129. “I don’t think that’s right that people are buying stuff if they’re in town,” he said. The board approved accounts payable with those three charges pulled. When the board came back from a recess later in the meeting, Tran said, “I have an alibi, if I may.” “An alibi?” Motley asked. Tran then pointed to two back-to-back $1,219.15 items in Fund 108 as a possible double billing; Motley said it would be checked between meetings.

Employees speak for public works director

Four employees used public comment to back Public Works Director Kenny Allen. Tanner Odell said he had heard allegations that his boss might be fired that night.

Odell said Allen “leads by example like a boss should.” Bobby Reed said, “From my observations, this is a witch hunt against Mr. Allen.” Reed said there is an allegation that a photo of Allen’s personal vehicle on a lift at the county barn was sent to a commissioner, and that it has been common practice for county employees to work on their own vehicles in the garage, with the understanding that it not be for personal gain or on county time. “If you’re gonna write Mr. Allen up for this, which in my opinion is wrong, you better do a deep dive and a better investigation than the last one,” Reed said, adding that he has worked on his own vehicle there. He called it “a witch hunt by one or two commissioners…I would think there are a lot bigger items to solve than continually messing with the employees.”

Kyle Schnickel said employees have seen their insurance go up, pay cuts and no raises. Clay Campbell questioned the investigation by the county’s HR contractor, Cohen. Campbell said he was told 12 current employees were interviewed and seven former employees were called, and that he understood nine or 10 of the questions were about Allen’s job performance and only one about the allegation.

State: county out of appraisal compliance

Mike Dallman of the Kansas Department of Revenue’s Property Valuation Division held the call state law requires with any county found out of substantial compliance. Bourbon County scored 63.1 of 100 points; 75 is needed.

Most of the shortfall was in the statistics. The median ratio for residential property, which compares appraised values with sale prices, was 77.7%, below the 90% to 110% standard, and the commercial median was 66.5%. Residential uniformity passed, meaning that the county had appraised residential property at a similar percentage of their actual selling price. Commercial uniformity did not, meaning commercial properties were appraised at very different percentages of their selling price.

The county earned 21.1 of 50 statistical points for the accuracy of the assessments, but did significantly better on the procedural part of the assessment gaining 47 of 50 procedural points. However, they then lost 5 points for two missteps. The market trend notice was not published at least 10 days before change-of-value notices were mailed. There was also inconsistent coding for 162/163 component codes and on web soil survey data submitted after the state’s deadline. Dallman said both of those are easy fixes on the procedural side of things.

The study used 112 residential and 19 commercial sales from 2025. Dallman said the number of people in the county who appeal their valuation is probably low “because, I mean, I hate to say it, the values are low.” Whether to raise values is up to the commission and the appraiser, he said, adding that there seemed to be a little more interest from the Statehouse this year in counties out of compliance, though he did not know what, if anything, would come of it. Milburn-Kee asked how the state picks and validates the sales it uses; Dallman said the state does its own sales validation, the county can appeal individual sales, and counties may submit a market trend if they also apply it in their own analysis. He praised the county’s new appraiser, Danielle, and said the state gives a new appraiser a year to get settled on non-statutory procedures, though statutory deadlines still apply.

Executive sessions

The commission met for 10 minutes in executive session on insurance matters with Christy Mitchell, Don Doherty and Jeremy Bowman of the county’s insurance services firm and returned with no action. Doherty said the firm would keep looking at options and bring them back.

Tran then moved two executive sessions on the duty performance of non-elected personnel, 15 and 20 minutes, with the five commissioners only. After the first, on Tran’s motion, the board authorized Motley to sign a payroll change document reflecting “the consensus that the five of us came to in executive session.” The second ended with no action.

Transfer station backhoe

Diane Ballou of the transfer station asked where the backhoe stood. Beerbower said he struck it because it had been voted down five times at the last meeting, and it was up to those who voted against it to decide what equipment the station gets. “I’m here to say we need something,” Ballou said, describing the current machine as worn out. “I shouldn’t have to come up here and beg for something to work with.”

Motley said that because of the tight budget he wants to “survive until January” with repairs, then buy a machine whose first payment would come in January 2028. He said Ben Hart of Baker Tilly, the county’s financial consultant, is building equipment depreciation and replacement schedules for every department at no extra cost. Tran said departments need written replacement and maintenance plans: “You can’t run a county by reacting.” Ballou said the need predated Public Works Director Allen. Beerbower noted that a backhoe purchase was approved in July and then reversed, and that the department then brought five bids as directed. He said the transfer station had a $96,000 profit or carryover in 2025, that a new backhoe was priced at $120,000, and that in his view the current machine’s frame is broken and puts workers at risk.

Ballou said the station’s rates are well below other facilities’ and could go up for out-of-county customers without losing business. Motley asked her to recommend how much out-of-county rates could rise, and said he would favor that; Milburn-Kee said she would not vote for an increase on in-county customers right now. On holiday hours, Beerbower said he will never vote to open on holidays and that Saturdays need two workers. Ballou said the station is down to two workers, herself and one other, after a third quit; that worker’s last day is Friday.

Holiday meetings, payroll software, Verizon

The board approved the treasurer’s quarterly reports. It revised Resolution 21-26 so that a meeting falling on a county holiday moves to the next business day and, at Beerbower’s request, struck Section 3A, which called for alternating regular meetings with work sessions.

On a motion by Milburn-Kee, the board approved a $1,200 software license so the county’s Pay Entry payroll system can import into its CIC accounting software. Motley said the county has had “issues for 10 months now of incorrect accounting entries” and that the last four payrolls had not been entered; Milburn-Kee said Laura Krom, the commission’s executive assistant, had since been breaking those payrolls down by department for the accounts payable clerk. The fix will not correct past entries, Motley said, and he favors moving payroll back to CIC later, without rushing it: “I think we need to do this. And take our time on the transition back to CIC. I think we need to go back to CIC, but we need to take out time, do it right, and not have the disruptions that we had last time.”

The motion passed, though Beerbower asked for another week to review it and voted against.

The problem dates to the county’s move of payroll from CIC to the outside service Pay Entry in late 2025. CIC’s payroll posted directly to the county’s books; Pay Entry does not, so the County Clerk’s office has had to enter payroll into the ledger by hand from reports, a manual process of typing in each number that could potentially introduce errors. Krom, hired in December to run Pay Entry, prepares those reports under a February resolution. Former County Clerk Susan Walker told commissioners Aug. 10, shortly before her resignation took effect, that the county had had eight months of payroll problems where the PayEntry reports that needed to be manually entered into CIC were incomplete, miscoded, and contained incorrect deductions. She recommended Baker Tilly take over the payroll ledger entries. Motley said Monday that fixing the backlog is not in Baker Tilly’s contract and the firm would charge extra for it.

The board also authorized Motley to sign a new one-year Verizon contract after Beerbower suggested seeking proposals from other carriers first. Beerbower voted against the contract. On Beerbower’s motion, each elected official and department head, or a designee, will get administrative rights on the county’s Verizon account; Beerbower said the sheriff’s office has been unable to get two phones it needs. The board continued TEC remote support at $60 per device per year for the phone system’s voicemail computer and the computer that live-streams meetings.

Conservation district gets $5,000 more

Deb Lusk, treasurer of the Bourbon County Conservation District, said the district’s budget line was approved at $20,000 of the $40,000 it requested. She said an additional $5,000 from the county would let the district draw a two-to-one Kansas Water Fund match that she put at an additional $50,000 for local farmers’ conservation work, such as fencing ponds. On Motley’s motion, the board added $5,000. Vice President Ronnie Brown, who said he has been involved with the district for nearly 40 years, spoke about road and streambank erosion, cedar trees and the district’s youth programs.

Road complaints

Tran said constituents report potholes on Range Road between the Devon bridge and 145th and a broken guardrail on the south side of the bridge, and that he gets no feedback from Public Works on road reports. He also mentioned a Valley Road report, and Milburn-Kee raised complaints about signs hidden by trees at a Little Osage bridge. Joe Allen and Motley said they had not been receiving the road-report emails from the county website, which they concluded was because the county is now in 5 districts, and they have not been added. On Beerbower’s motion, the board set Public Works Director updates for the first and third Mondays of each month.

HR hire

The county received three responses to its request for proposals for human resources services. Milburn-Kee said she had found HR support available at no added cost through the county’s insurer, KCAMP, and Beerbower suggested reviewing that next week.

Joe Allen then moved to hire Millie Lipscomb as the county’s HR provider for one year, saying employees had told him they “wanted to see a face” in HR. Motley seconded. No price was stated in the meeting, and part of the motion’s wording, about her insurance, was unclear. Reference letters in the agenda packet describe Lipscomb as the HR lead at Niece Products of Kansas since 2021.

Tran objected. “HR has to be impartial,” he said, arguing that a local person may know employees and that the proposals should have been compared in a private source selection rather than discussed in public, to avoid a protest. He said one of the three responses did not meet the work statement. Beerbower and Tran then traded accusations of making assumptions before Motley stopped the exchange.

Motley said many local employers have local HR staff. “This is about spending money in Bourbon County with a qualified person, a person that will be visible, a lot more visible than any outside company,” he said. He said the current provider is good but “doesn’t have the trust of the employees.” Beerbower said he wants an individual rather than a company handling HR, and that the current clerk’s HR experience combined with the insurer’s free resources was the other option he would consider. The motion passed 3-2. Tran (“Vehemently, no”) and Milburn-Kee voted against it.

Meetings move to City Hall

Because early voting began Monday and election workers use the commission room, the board voted to hold its Oct. 26 and Nov. 2 meetings at Fort Scott City Hall, with one vote against. Beerbower said he had arranged it with the city and was told the meetings could be streamed to YouTube from there, though he said he would double-check after commissioners raised questions about logging in to the stream.

The commission tabled the asbestos report until its next meeting and did not reach well testing or the benefit contribution review. Joe Allen said the county’s auction went live on GovDeals Monday and ends next Monday.

Commission comments

Beerbower said the building being set up for court operations goes live Wednesday, but heavy rain caused a leak and a ceiling cave-in in one room. ServiceMaster is finishing the cleanup, and a tarp for the roof will cost $6,500, he said; with ServiceMaster’s bill still to come, the project will go over budget.

Milburn-Kee shared enlarged photos constituents sent her, including one she said appears to show a personal vehicle on a county lift. Tran cited K.S.A. 21-5803 and said using county property for personal use is a misdemeanor.

Milburn-Kee also congratulated the winning HR bidder. She said she hoped Lipscomb’s other work, writing columns for the Bourbon County Monitor, would not cross into the county HR job.

Tran said his objections were not personal, then accused Motley, Joe Allen and Beerbower, who had voted together on the hire, of settling their votes outside public meetings. “Clearly the decision was already made by the three of you before you came to the table,” he said. “Can I prove it? No. But your action speaks louder than words.” He added, “We’re supposed to be one voice, and you three voted together offline. You did it before, and you did it again tonight.”

Motley replied, “My commissioner’s comment is that everything Commissioner Tran just said is wrong,” and the meeting adjourned.

October 18th, 2026

FORT SCOTT — Bourbon County has finally had its courthouse inspected for asbestos, and a report is on the commission’s agenda for Monday night.

An environmental firm did the inspection Sept. 29, under a contract the commission capped at $5,000. The Oct. 19 agenda lists “Asbestos Report – Beerbower,” two days before the courthouse elevator goes out of service for renovation.

Long before anyone took a sample, the public was told the building was fine. In July, then-Chairman Samuel Tran said the state had given the courthouse “a clean bill of health” and that “for the general public, we’re fine.” In September, he said the asbestos issue only became a controversy because “somebody took it and broadcast it all over the news prior to coming to the board.”

Monday’s report should show whether the building is safe for the public and for county employees. Tran’s claim that there would have been no controversy if “somebody” had brought the issue to the board instead of to news outlets can be checked against the record now.

What Jackson reported, and what happened next

On Friday afternoon, May 29, courthouse maintenance employee William Jackson sent his supervisor, Laura Krom, executive assistant to the county commission, a text message with photos of crumbling pipe insulation in the courthouse basement and asked for permission to have it tested for asbestos, FortScott.biz reported in June. He also photographed dust he said was collecting on desks in the basement work area.

The next morning, the county’s contracted human resources consultant, Dr. Steven Cohen, told Jackson by phone that he was terminated. The termination memo, from Cohen and Krom to Jackson’s personnel file, says Cohen spoke with Jackson “after conversation with Ms. Laura Krom and consultation with two Bourbon County Commissioners.” It cites his probationary status and Kansas at-will employment. May 30 was his 90th day.

The memo does not name the two commissioners, but commissioners Gregg Motley, Joe Allen and David Beerbower all say they were not consulted about the firing. That leaves Commissioners Mika Milburn-Kee and Samuel Tran, who was chairman at the time.

“A clean bill of health”

In mid-June, a Kansas Department of Health and Environment representative walked the basement with county Emergency Manager Lou Howard. It was a visual look; no samples were taken. Howard told FortScott.biz the representative “did not see anything that was concerning,” but added: “He did say that if there was active construction going on at the time, then it would be a concern.”

FortScott.biz asked county officials about it the same day. Milburn-Kee said someone had given “a verbal” account and that “it wasn’t a negative report — like it wasn’t bad,” though she had nothing in writing and had not spoken with KDHE herself. Krom said she had not seen it but had “heard that the report is complete.”

Jackson came to the July 6 commission meeting to raise the same concerns he had communicated to his supervisor the day before being fired. “If there is no hazard, prove it,” he said. “Release the inspection records, show the testing, let the facts speak.” (video, 15:57)

Near the end of that meeting, Tran took up “the issue of health and wellness of the people within the building itself” (video, 1:55:38):

“KDHE did come through the building. They did tour the building. They did inspect the building. They gave us a clean bill of health.”

He said that did not mean the building was free of asbestos or lead, but that KDHE “did see it, they did annotate it, they gave us a clean bill of health. … So for the general public, we’re fine. As long as you don’t go eating it, licking it, crumbling it, and breathing it, you’ll be fine.”

Milburn-Kee replied: “Actually, I heard you could eat it, you just shouldn’t breathe it.” (video, 1:57:08)

There was no report, and no “clean bill of health” that could be verified. When the Bourbon County Monitor requested the documentation the county produced a single memo Krom wrote on July 8, two days after Tran spoke. Not only was there no KDHE “bill of health” attached, the memo specifically said KDHE would not issue anything in writing. Further it said that KDHE “only regulates asbestos in connection with construction or demolition, not deterioration alone.” This apparently put the deteriorating pipe insulation falling onto an employee’s desk outside KDHE’s purview.

“KDHE cannot give us a clean bill of health”

Four weeks later, Commissioner Gregg Motley contradicted Tran’s claim (video, 2:19:59):

“Asbestos is a federal EPA issue. KDHE cannot give us a clean bill of health. The only time the state’s involved is when there’s construction surrounding asbestos.”

“Some people are afraid to come in the courthouse, whether their fears are justified or not,” Motley said. Allen said some county employees “refuse to go down there now” (video, 2:20:46). When the board asked for a volunteer to take on the issue, Tran said, “I’m not volunteering” (video, 2:21:25). Motley took it.

On Aug. 31, Motley reported that asbestos expert Dr. Arthur Frank told him “we definitely need to have it tested” (video, 58:06). That night Milburn-Kee moved to have the entire courthouse tested; the motion failed. Two days later, she brought a testing firm to the board, and commissioners voted to hire it.

“Broadcast it all over the news”

On Sept. 21, Beerbower wanted to bring resident Michael Hoyt to the inspection. Milburn-Kee moved that the inspection be limited to “the employees, the elected official, the contractors,” and Tran seconded (video, 52:58). In the discussion that followed, Tran said (video, 54:04):

“This has been known in this building for a while, way before you became commissioner, way before I became commissioner, and it became a controversy because somebody took it and broadcast it all over the news prior to coming to the board with the results.”

“Yes, we have an issue, we’re trying to fix it,” he added. “But it didn’t need to be blown out of proportion.” The motion passed 3-1, with Beerbower opposed.

William Jackson was the one who raised the issue. According to his account, he had been fired for doing exactly what Tran said he had not done: raising the issue with the board first. He sent a written request with photos to the commission’s own executive assistant on Friday, May 29. Tran, Milburn-Kee, Krom and Cohen then decided to fire him, and he was told Saturday morning, less than a day after he sent the request.

Tran’s complaint points to a proper path: bring the concern to the board before going public. Jackson took that path, and within hours Tran was part of the decision to fire him. Tran did not say what Jackson should have done differently. Jackson’s photos reached the news only after he had raised the issue through his supervisor and been fired.

What Monday should answer

On Oct. 5, Beerbower told the board the inspection “did happen” but he had not received results (video, 1:16:11).

The report should say whether the material Jackson photographed contains asbestos and whether air samples in the building found fibers. If the insulation is asbestos, the crumbling pipes over the basement work area, and the dust on the desks below them, become a far more serious matter for the people in that area.

If the results are clean, they will support Tran’s July assurance that “we’re fine.” If they are not, residents will have the July 6 recording, the July 8 memo and the May 30 termination memo to set beside them.

The commission meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, at the courthouse, 210 S. National Ave.