December 21, 2020

Kiowa County Community Center

December 21, 2020

Ronald Freeman, John Bertram Bert Lowery, Kristi Cooper, Chay Howard, Jay Schmidt, Kerri Ulrich, Jeff Blackburn and Matt Christenson and Rhonda Fernandez attended the meeting.

Consent agenda included: Agenda and commissioner minutes of 12/07

After the prayer given by Jeff Blackburn, Ron opened the meeting at 9:00. Bert moved to approve the consent agenda as presented and John seconded, motion carried 2-0.

Ron adjourned the regular meeting and called the BOH meeting to order. Kerri Ulrich came to discuss updates for Board of Health(BOH) which included; COVID case totals, copy of the antibody testing procedure, vaccine arriving in the next couple weeks, explained the difference in the vaccines for Pfizer and Moderna, payroll changes N Zadina & P Fuller(merit). Ron adjourned the BOH and called the regular meeting to order. After review of the payroll changes Bert moved to approve the payroll changes as presented and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.

Jay Schmidt came to give updates for public works departments which included; lease agreement for signatures on the new 2021 Caterpillar 140-15AWD motor grader, encumber funds from R&B fund and move the funds into the Special R&B equipment fund in the amount of $145,000 to pay for lease agreement on the M-29 grader payments. Bert moved to approve the encumbrance of funds and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.

Matt Christenson came to discuss transfer of funds in the amount of $4179.64 from the Community Center fund to go towards repairs to the generator at the Community Center. Bert moved to approve the transfer and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Next, he requests to transfer $25,000 from Courthouse General to the General Special equipment fund to go towards the purchase of a different used truck for maintenance. John moved to approve the transfer and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0.

Kristi Cooper presented payroll changes for J Scarbrough(separation), T Neill(merit), C McElroy(merit) for approval. After review of the payroll changes Ron moved to approve them as presented and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Next, she presented a voucher from Decker Electric and explained that the District Court will be getting some updates to their audio system and that they will be paid with Cares Act funds that they received from the state, but the county will pay for the service upfront and be reimbursed. This project must be completed by the end of the year to be eligible for reimbursement from the state. Bert moved to approve voucher as presented and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. She will run a special AP and bring the reports to the next meeting. Last she wanted to discuss the employer paid leave regarding the Families first Coronavirus response act. She explained currently when an employee is quarantined, they are paid 100% of their wages up to a 2-week period for 80 hours and that this ends on December 31st and asks what they would like to do moving forward. After some discussion John moved to pay any employee who is quarantined 100% of their wages up to 2-week period for 80 hours per occurrence and Ron seconded, motion carried 3-0.

Matt Christenson came to discuss final distribution of the spark grant. Krista was present for the discussion regarding the funds that was allocated for the Sheriff office. He explained that expense would not be covered in the Cares Act funds due to the project would not be completed in the year we received the funds and that they would have to pay for that out of their regular budget. The funds that was allocated was $9997 and those funds have now been allocated to USD 422 to help with COVID related expenses.

Break called till 10:06

Rhonda Fernandez came to give a review of 2020 BlueCross & BlueShield reports.

John left the meeting.

Break called till 11 till County Attorney could arrive.

Chay Howard presented a letter he had received from the attorney for hospital board of trustees regarding the ambulance service agreement again, so Ron was aware of what was going on with the transition for a consent letter to assign the existing agreement for the ambulance service over to the Kiowa County Memorial Hospital. Next, he presented a resolution 2020-20 regarding two properties owned by Great Plains that will be conveyed to the county to be held for use by the hospital. Bert moved to adopt Resolution 2020-21 and Ron seconded, motion carried 2-0. Next, he requested an executive session for 15 sessions for non-elected personal regarding employee relations. Bert moved to go into executive session and Ron seconded, motion carried 2-0. Regular session began at 11:27 with no action taken. Bert moved to go back in for another 10 minutes and Ron seconded, motion carried 2-0. Regular session began at 11:37 no action taken. Bert requested to go back in for another 10 minutes for non-elected personnel and Ron seconded, motion carried 2-0. Regular session began at 11:47 with no action taken.

During Commissioner discussion there was no topics discussed.

Meeting adjourned at 11:51

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