February 7, 2022

Kiowa County Commissioners Meeting
February 7, 2022

David White, Bert Lowery, John Bertram, Shelly Tuttle, Chay Howard, Jay Schmidt, Matt Christenson, Theron McKinney, and Julie Lyon attended the meeting.

Consent agenda included: Agenda and Commissioner minutes of 2/7/2022.

After the prayer and the pledge of allegiance, David White opened the meeting at 9:00. Bert moved to approve the consent agenda as presented John seconded, motion passed unanimously.

Jay Schmidt came and presented updates for the Public Works Department which included a payroll change for R Lothman for a merit increase. After review of the payroll change Bert moved to accept it as presented and John seconded, motion passed unanimously. He also presented the track loader lease agreement from Foley, after some discussion, John moved to purchase the track loader for $297,537.21 David seconded, motion passed unanimously. Last Jay brought up resolution 2012-13 regarding permitting use of County right of way by utilities and how he feels it needs to be updated. After some discussion they decided to review the resolution and discuss the changes that they would like to see at the next meeting.

Bert called for a 10-minute executive session for attorney client privilege to discuss legal issue regarding use of the right of way, David seconded, motion passed unanimously. Regular session began at 9:30 with no action session taken.

Chay informed the Commissioners that Diane Thompson with Haviland Broadband emailed him and Kristi this morning to inform them that she would not be able to make it to the meeting but would like the Commissioners sign a letter of support. Diane included a couple of sample letters in her email. Chay left to print the letters.

Matt Christenson came and discussed a grant program that was announced last week called BASE, Building A Stronger Economy, after some discussion the Commissioners decided that this grant did not benefit the County at this time. Matt also updated the guys about a critical hardware failure in one of our servers that happened last week, he has ordered the part and hopefully will have it in a few days.

Chay came back with the sample letters that Diane emailed, after some review and discussion the Commissioners decided to call Diane to verify that they needed the letter before the next Commissioner meeting that will be held on February 22, 2022. John moved to sign a letter of support for the ReConnect Grant Program, David seconded, the motion passed unanimously.

Theron McKinney and Chay Howard came to discuss the proposed resolution for open burning in the county. After some discussion John moved to pass resolution 2022-5 for enacting regulations for opening burning in the county and setting penalties for violations of the regulations regarding open burning and Bert seconded, motion passed unanimously. Next Theron informed the Commissioners that the Haviland fire department is going to need to replace the 1972 AMC 6X6 tanker. It was agreed by consensus that Theron can start looking at tankers and let the Commissioners know what he can find.

David called for a 5-minute break.

Regular session began at 10:26.

During Commissioner discussion Chay informed the commissioners that he is waiting on a little more information on purchasing the lot for the health department and will get the contract to the Commissioners when he can. Chay is also going to look at the road and bridge resolution and let them know his thoughts as well.

Meeting adjourned at 10:31.