December 20, 2021

Kiowa County Commissioners Meeting
December 20, 2021

John Bertram, David White, Bert Lowery, Chay Howard, Kristi Cooper, Jay Schmidt, Kerri Ulrich, Rhonda Fernandez, Kendal Lothman, Karen Butler and Jeff Blackburn attended the meeting.

Consent agenda included: Agenda, Payroll reports, Accounts Payable reports and Commissioner minutes of 12/6/21.

After the prayer given by Jeff Blackburn, John Bertram opened the meeting at 9:00. Bert moved to approve the consent agenda as presented John seconded, motion passed unanimously.

John adjourned the regular meeting and called the Board of Health(BOH) meeting to session. Kerri Ulrich came to give updates for Public Health which included training exercises, jail nursing agreement with Sheriff office, health fair preparation starting in January, COVID-19 case totals, vaccine totals and working on a document regarding school quarantines guidelines with the school and medical director. John adjourned the BOH and called the regular meeting back to order. David requested a 10-minute executive session for non-elected personal to discuss personal matters regarding the health department at 9:27 and Bert seconded, motion passed unanimously. Regular session began at 9:37 with no action taken.

Norval Ralstin came to talk with the Commissioner’s about them assisting with the cost of replacing the roof at the round barn south of Mullinville and is requesting assistance from the County to help with the replacement of a new metal roof. David informed him that will discuss this and see if they could help with the funding.

Jay Schmidt came and presented updates for the Public Works Department which included concrete projects on 5th Ave is completed, engineers will be out to inspect the intersections north of Haviland regarding the signs, local safety plan discussed regard paining edge lines on the blacktops, install cattle guards on Belvidere road next week, received 2 JD tractors last week, track loader at the landfill final drive needs repairs and a rebuild on a 953C.

Matt Christenson came to request to transfer $7476.91 for IT equipment for the support agreement building control software into a Special Equipment fund and additional $5000 for workstations. He did explain that they had already approved the purchase of the IT equipment but that the company is unable to ship until next year and therefore he won’t be invoiced at that time. Bert moved to allow the transfer of $12,476.91from capital outlay in the courthouse general to be put into the special equipment fund and John seconded, motion passed unanimously. Next, he presented a quote from Building Control Systems(BCS) for support agreement in the amount of $4,700. Bert moved to approve the quote from BCS and John seconded, motion passed unanimously.
Next Matt requested to revisit the COLA discussion from last meeting. After much discussion David moved to approve a 4% COLA increase on all county employees for 2022 and John seconded, motion passed unanimously.

Chay Howard presented a resolution 2021-10 which elects Kiowa County to participate in the National Opioid Settlement. After review of the documents he provided, John moved to adopt the resolution as presented and Bert seconded, motion passed unanimously.

Break called till 11:52

Rhonda Fernandez came to give BCBS 2021 claim updates and insurance updates.

Kristi Cooper presented tax corrections for approval, after review of the corrections Bert moved to approve them as presented and John seconded, motion passed unanimously. Next she asked if they would allow the courthouse to close on December 23 at noon to give an extra day for the Christmas holiday and it was by consensus to close at noon.

During Commissioner discussion they discussed the round barn assistance and on call pay with the sheriff office,

Meeting adjourned at 11:41