May 5, 2020 Tuesday 9:00 am

The Bourbon County Commission met in open session on the front East steps of the Courthouse (due to COVID-19), present for the meeting were the Commissioners, Justin Meeks and Kendell Mason.

Tammy Helm with the Fort Scott Tribune and Anne Dare were present for the morning meeting.

Jim Harris reported that Road & Bridge is hauling gravel and installing culverts around the County and is patching (near 232nd & Jewell and then south of Garland). Jim estimated that they had approximately 75% of the patching done on the asphalt roads. Jim said they need to do ditching on Hackberry and on Indian Road. He said they are crushing at the Thomas Quarry and will be doing a blast at the Blake Quarry within 30 days. Jim said they are still watching the funds before deciding on the chip/seal and asphalt plan for 2020.

Jeff discussed the FEMA grant money that Bourbon County has been working to receive regarding flood damage that occurred in 2019. The County could be eligible for funding for the reimbursement of repair cost and labor from flooding repairs. He said that KDEM needs equipment information and supporting documentation from Road & Bridge for the grant application process. Jeff said he reviewed data for materials used from May – June, but said there wasn’t a lot of data from July – September, (which could be due to the crew doing paving work during this time and not doing flood repairs). Jeff said he didn’t think all of the flood blocked structures had been cleaned out or that all of the repair work had been done. Jeff said he had sent Jim a list of grant items needed. Jeff said the grant had been stalled since we hadn’t provided the documentation requested. Jeff said they also needed information on the equipment used to produce gravel. Jim said his department is willing to provide the needed information for the grant.

There is brush that needs cut at on Xavier; Jim said if it isn’t already done, they will get it done.

Lynne briefly discussed the 2020 budgets; he said 15-20% would need to be cut from budgets due to a revenue shortfall. Jim said they have already purchased the salt for the upcoming winter

Lynne asked Jim Harris where the chips for the rock are tested; Jim said Allied in Wichita does this. Lynne asked if Ag Engineering could do this; Jim said they didn’t have the lab to do this.

Jeff said he had heard that a portion of Indian Road was closed; Jim said the County hadn’t closed it. Jim said they notify the radio and dispatch when they close a road.

Ed Murrow reported to the Commissioners a culvert plugged at the Stevenson Cemetery at 65th & Yale at the side entrance. He said he had reported this twice to Jim Harris, but it still wasn’t fixed. Lynne said he would report this to Jim Harris.

Lynne made a motion to adopt Resolution 15-20; a resolution for the financing of the two 2021 Mack dump trucks through City State Bank, for a lease amount of $223,538.00, interest rate of 2.28% and semi-annual payments of $23,567.63 for five years, Nick seconded and all approved. Lynne and Kendell signed the financing documents and the Commissioners signed the resolution.

Bourbon County Attorney Jacqie Spradling met with the Commissioners; Lynne said they previously discussed a wage increase for the Assistant County Attorney, but didn’t finalize this raise. Jeff made a motion to approve a wage increase from $55,000 – $65,000 for the Assistant County Attorney, Lynne seconded and all approved. On 5/12/2020, the Commissioners will be presented with a salary resolution with this increase on it. Lynne said they will be asking department heads to closely monitor their budgets and said they were looking at a 15-20% across the board budget cut.

Lynne said the County has purchased a disinfecting spray system that kills surface germs that is being used in the County buildings.

Bourbon County Appraiser met with the Commissioners regarding his employees and COVID-19. He said they need to get back to field work to do measurements and to do day to day operations; all of the Commissioners were ok with this. He said they need to do residential and commercial work he said his employees will be using masks, gloves and keeping a distance. His employees will be driving marked vehicles. Clint said they have been having property hearings over the phone.

Due to COVID-19 the Courthouse has been closed to the public since March 17, 2020. Lynne said he talked with Judge Harth who said the court had two options regarding re-opening; option one open the court system when the Courthouse opens and option two with only the courts open. Justin said there are access issues regarding space for the court to comply with the COVID-19 safety guidelines. They are working with the courts to address the court’s needs. Justin said they are looking into using the Annex building for court use. The Deeds office is doing business by appointment only, some offices now have drop boxes for business use and some offices are meeting outside the Courthouse doors for business. The Commissioners said the Courthouse will be closed at least through May 17th and will consider reopening of the Courthouse based on the Governors decision then.

COVID-19 has caused a decrease in revenue; Justin said there is a high possibility that we will need additional subsidies for funding the EMS, Kendell questioned if there were grants available to help fund EMS. The Commissioners said an alternative option is to use an ambulance service company such as AMS or EMR.

Justin said there was a jail issue that would be taken care of by the end of the day.

Justin and Lynne had meet with the City of Fort Scott regarding combining services between the City and County; they are waiting on May month end budget reports before discussing again.

The Commission meeting on May 12th will be held outside on the front East steps of the Courthouse. If it’s raining it will be held in the first floor lobby.

At 11:00 Lynne made a motion to break for lunch and reconvene at 1:30, Nick seconded and the motion passed.

After lunch the following were at the meeting; Jason Silvers with the Fort Scott Tribune, Mary Pemberton, Anne Dare, Kim Simons and Nancy Van Etten.

Mary Pemberton met with the Commissioners to discuss the PILOT agreement from Jayhawk Wind Farm; she said in October the Commissioners had set the goal to reduce the property tax mill levy rate by 13% by 2030. She said it had been mentioned that the PILOT money could be a contributor to reach this goal. She asked that the Commissioners adopt the following resolution… “A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE USE OF PILOT PROCEEDS RECEIVED FROM THE JAYHAWK WIND ENERGY PROJECT WHEREAS, the Board of County Commissioners of Bourbon County, Kansas has entered into a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement with Jayhawk Wind, LLC dated March 13, 2020 and anticipated receiving $365,625 per year beginning on or about December 1, 2021 and continuing for 9 years followed by $182,813.00 for 1 year until the wind energy project becomes taxable under Kansas Law; and WHEREAS, the members of the Board of County Commissioners have set a goal of reducing the property tax mill levy rate by 13% by 2030 and have indicated this project will assist in achieving this goal; NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS that proceeds from the PILOT agreement referred to above be and hereby shall be allocated by the Board of County Commissioners, from year to year for each year in which PILOT proceeds are received, in the same manner and proportion as all other ad valorem tax revenue, to help achieve this goal of lowering the property tax mill levy. ADOPTED AND APPROVED at their regular meeting on the 5th day of May, 2020.” The Commissioners did not adopt the resolution; Lynne said they would take it under advisement when discussing the 2021 budget in June of 2020. She asked where the initial upfront payment of $407,812.50 had been allocated; Lynne said this will be discussed when doing the 2021 budget. Mrs. Pemberton asked the Commissioners if Bourbon County deserved a lower than average financial compensation from Jayhawk Wind Farm because of the limited roads they said they would be using, then why did the County sign an agreement giving them access to all of the County roads without restrictions; neither the Commissioners or Justin wanted to comment on this.

Nancy Johnson met with the Commissioners regarding an article in the Fort Scott Tribune about MRI Global COVID-19 testing; MRI Global was scheduled to be discussed during the April 28th Commission meeting, but after an executive session, Lynne made a motion to remove the presentation regarding MRI Global from the agenda, Nick seconded and the motion passed and Nick made a motion to stop everything with the MRI Global and not to support it moving forward, Lynne seconded and the motion passed. Mrs. Johnson questioned if they voted to not move forward with MRI Global why the lengthy article in the May 2nd, 2020 Fort Scott Tribune. She discussed the article in the Tribune which covered many items including “testing with same day results”, “the training and verification for a particular lab testing platform”, “the testing offers the ability to trace contacts and support communications between clinicians and patients, providing an indicator of the spread and control of COVID-19”. Jeff Fischer told the Tribune that “this is tracking the disease, not the people. The surveillance would be reporting of numbers and disease progression. The tracking, or contact tracing, would be people exposed to a positive case.” The article also discussed the pricing for testing. Mrs. Johnson questioned the HIPPA laws with regards to testing, the return to work orders and suggested they re-think forcing people into testing for COVID-19. Lynne said they took MRI Global off of the table; they had brought this up to look at the feasibility, but they are not supporting the idea. Lynne said they are following the orders of the Governor and the Public Health regarding re-opening.

At 1:49, Jeff made a motion to adjourn, Nick seconded and all approved.

THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS
(ss) Lynne Oharah, Chairman
(ss) Jeff Fischer, Commissioner
(ss) Nick Ruhl, Commissioner
ATTEST:
Kendell Mason, Bourbon County Clerk
May 12, 2020, Approved Date

April 28, 2020 Tuesday 9:00 am

The Bourbon County Commission met in open session in the EOC room, the Commissioners and Justin Meeks were all present, and Kendell was present via telephone. The meeting was posted on Facebook.

Lynne made a motion to go into a 5 minute executive session for personnel matters of individual non-elected personnel, Nick seconded and all approved, (the session included the Commissioners and Justin Meeks). Lynne made a motion to remove the 11:00 presentation regarding MRI Global from the agenda for today, Nick seconded and the motion passed. Nick made a motion to stop everything with the MRI Global and not to support it moving forward, Lynne seconded and the motion passed.

Jim Harris reported they have been mowing, hauling gravel and installing culverts. They have done patching on Yale, near Hubert Thomas’s residence as well as Soldier Road. He said they will be pulling shoulders on 215th and will be pulling shoulders at Fort Scott Lake, they will wedge at the Lake when done, Jim said even if they don’t overlay there they could still ditch. Jim said they are waiting on the Sales Tax Revenue report before deciding the asphalt plan for the year. Lynne said he and Terry Sercer discussed the Sales Tax fund; he said they weren’t able to transfer as much as needed due to the amount collected being down and they did more overlay work in 2019 than anticipated. At the last Commission meeting the Commissioners nominated Josh Jones to chair the renewal process of the Sales Tax fund; the program is very important since the County uses the money for the hard surface road program. In the past 2 years, the County did 31 miles of asphalt. Jim said that asphalt is currently approximately $50/ton cheaper.

Jim said it was likely that a piece of equipment had hit a deck on a bridge on Unity just west of 95th.

Jim said they are waiting on a report from Ag Engineering to see what to do with a crossing at 60th & Grand Road.

Jim said they are short one person for mowing and one person for asphalt work. He said his staff is staying safe regarding COVID-19; his employees are keeping their distance, using sanitizers, masks and gloves. Lynne said the County has a sanitizer spray that can be made at a cost of .25 cents a gallon.

Jim said the City of Fort Scott wanted to meet with him; Jeff and Nick thought it was a good idea to meet.

Nick said Road & Bridge could use the pickup truck that the Appraiser wants to trade in; Jim said they don’t have the funds to buy the truck but suggested trading bulk fuel for the truck. No decision was made on the truck.

Jeff questioned the Road & Bridge department pushing a windrow of dirt against a fence; Jim said they will do this if it’s too wet and then will come back and move the dirt once it’s dry enough.

The Commissioners received bids to finance two 2021 Mack Dump trucks; City State Bank quoted a lease amount of $223,538 with 2.28% financing and no fees with semi annual payments of $23,567.63 with the first payment due 6/5/2020. U.S. Bank quoted financing $223,538 with 1.98% interest and a factor of 0.10466 for 5 years with two payments a year of $23,396.25. Jim Harris recommended financing through City State since they are a local bank. Nick made a motion to finance the trucks through City State Bank, Jeff seconded and all approved.

The Commissioners received one bid for fish food for Elm Creek Lake; Big Sugar bid $19.35 for a 50lb bag or $774/ton for Purina Catfish food. Nick made a motion to accept the bid, Jeff seconded and all approved. The County receives some funding from KDWP for the fish food.

The Commissioners briefly discussed the City asking for a portion of Indian Road being closed for the airport runway expansion; Jeff said there is a 12 month window for grievance claims if the road were closed. There are 3 possible detour routes; Jim Harris said he preferred the route that goes south to Hackberry and then west to the blacktop curve. Lynne said the closure could be considered once the new road is asphalted and open.

The Commissioners requested bids for tax sale work; Security 1st was the only bidder, but the Commissioners did not reveal their bid. Justin Meeks and the Commissioners discussed having a tax sale; Justin said he believed with people’s budget a tax sale could be more difficult due to the current economic times. He said in the past they tried to help people save their homes, Justin said there is a lot of cost with a tax sale especially since Hidden Valley properties are now included in the tax sales. Justin said he had met with Hidden Valley representatives, he said there is a high turnover of those properties on the tax sales. Justin said he is an advocate of the Land Bank. He said he hopes some landowners would sign over their properties to the Land Bank. He said if a tax sale was held it could cost $48-$50,000 for the tax sale and said the sale probably wouldn’t collect ½ of that back. He said it is difficult to get a clear title on tax sale properties. The Commissioners discussed delaying a tax sale; Jeff made a motion to postpone the title work required for a tax sale, Nick seconded and all approved.

The Commissioners discussed the current location of the Commission meetings; Justin said he had calls from a concerned citizen regarding KOMA. Justin said the current meetings meet the required standards. Currently the Courthouse building is closed to the public due to COVID-19; the Commissioners discussed how operations would work once the building opens up to the public. Currently the Commission meetings are streamed on Facebook, Jeff suggested having citizen’s schedule a time on the agenda with their subject and questions submitted prior to the meeting and the Commissioners could call them during a scheduled time. Justin said some Counties are doing Zoom meetings and some are doing their meetings the same as Bourbon County. Currently it is safer and easier to do a virtual meeting. Once the courts open up, there will be a large amount of people entering the building; visitors will be using the elevators, stairs and the entryway by the Commission room. The County will be spraying disinfectant to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Justin said the current building could be updated or we have a facility that could meet our needs. Jeff questioned if there was any potential of adapting the hospital space as the court space; Lynne said there are no easy answers.

Rachel Pruitt the Economic Development Director from the City of Fort Scott met with the Commissioners over the phone regarding the airport runway expansion. She said in June 2018 she met with the Commissioners regarding the partial closure of Indian Road should the airport runway be extended. She said she needed our current Commissioners to agree to a partial closing should the runway be extended, she said she needed Commission minutes stating if the runway was extended the Commissioners would go through the procedure to close the road. Lynne said the road closure procedure would have to be followed. Before the traffic would be impacted on Indian Road a road would be built. Nick made a motion if the runway expansion goes in they would close Indian Road after another road is built and they have gone through the road closure process, Jeff seconded and all approved. Rachel said their next step is to hold a public hearing after a 30 day notice.

Lynne made a motion to go into a 30 minute executive session for personnel matters of individual non-elected personnel, Nick seconded and all approved, (the session included the Commissioners and Justin Meeks). No action was taken.

Lynne made a motion to go into a 10 minute executive session for personnel matters of individual non-elected personnel, Nick seconded and all approved, (the session included the Commissioners and Justin Meeks). No action was taken.

At 11:41, the Commissioners went to lunch and reconvened at 1:30.

Emergency Manager William Wallis met with the Commissioners; Jeff made a motion to allow Lynne to sign an application for the Emergency Management Performance Grant Funds, Nick seconded and all approved and Lynne signed the document.

Will discussed the disaster declaration; he said they filed for 16 different mitigation projects. He submitted areas that Road & Bridge identified as areas that are always a problem. He filed for reimbursement of additional loads of gravel. Areas that were damaged during the flooding and the estimated cost to bring the area back to pre-flood damage state was submitted; if approved this cost could be reimbursed. Will estimated that more than $130,000 could be reimbursed to the County from KDEM for the flooding that occurred in the summer of 2019.

Lynne discussed the Bourbon County budgeted revenue; he said he felt that the shortfall in the budgeted revenue (both from sales tax revenue and property tax revenue) would be a problem. He felt they would have a better idea of the shortfall amount after April 2020. He felt the Commission should address this sooner rather than later. He said he was looking at an initial 15% across the board budget cut, but said it could be 20% by the end of the year. Lynne said it would be up to each department to see where to make that cut. Bourbon County needs to have sufficient funds to finish the year. Lynne will write a draft letter to the department heads to notify them of the initial 15% cut to their budget.

Lynne asked Terry Sercer to present the 2019 audit on May 5th, 2020.

Since COVID-19 and the closing of the Courthouse to the public, there have been drop boxes installed on the outside of the building. People are using the drop boxes, mail and the internet to conduct business which would have previously been done in person.

The Commissioners discussed how to hold future commission meetings once the Courthouse opens up to the public (due to COVID-19). They discussed using other larger facilities to hold the meetings in. The May 5th commission meeting will be held outside (weather permitting) on the front east steps, or if the weather doesn’t permit this, the meeting will be held in the lobby of the 1st floor. Public comment/questions will be allowed to be scheduled from 1:30-2:30, people wishing to comment or question the Commissioners will have 5 minutes each, the time needs to be scheduled and the subject/question needs to be submitted prior to the meeting. If the meeting is held outside, it will not be posted on Facebook live.

At 2:50, Nick made a motion to adjourn, Jeff seconded and all approved.

THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS
(ss) Lynne Oharah, Chairman
(ss) Jeff Fischer, Commissioner
(ss) Nick Ruhl, Commissioner
ATTEST:
Kendell Mason, Bourbon County Clerk
May 5, 2020, Approved Date