Commissioner Minutes
January 22, 2019
Kiowa County Commissioners Meeting
January 22, 2019
Bert Lowery, John Bertram, Ronald Freeman, Kristi Cooper, Chay Howard, Jeff Blackburn, Jay Schmidt and Rhonda Fernandez attended the meeting.
Consent agenda included: Agenda and Commissioner minutes of 12/17.
After the prayer was given by Jeff Blackburn, Bert opened the meeting. Ron moved to approve the consent agenda as presented and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Jay Schmidt came to give updates for Public Works departments which included; road maintenance, landfill holiday schedule, end dump trailers and vehicle quotes. Ron moved to purchase 2 Ford trucks in the amount of $64,212 from Lanterman Motors in Pratt and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Kristi Cooper presented tax corrections for approval. Ron moved to approve the corrections as presented, Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0. Kristi presented a contribution letter from Southwest Kansas Area Agency on Aging with request for 2019. Bert moved to give the same amount as last year in the amount of $700 and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Safe Kids and After prom contribution letters were presented. After review John moved to give $100 to both and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0. Last she presented payroll changes J Unruh (resignation), M Murski (resignation), S Butler (position change), A Taylor (merit increase), S Beltz (new hire), N Hacker (new hire), M Hesser (resignation). After review of the payroll changes, Bert moved to approve them as presented and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Break at 10:00 till 10:05
Rhonda Fernandez with PIC came to give mid-year report on claims and funding.
During Commissioner discussion they continued the discussion of Elected Official salaries. After some discussion Bert moved to give $3000 increase to the Sheriffs salary and $1000 increase to the Clerk, Treasurer and Register of Deeds salary and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Chay Howard talked about having insurance for any private events at any of our facilities, he will work on that information and have it at the meeting on the 4th.
Meeting was adjourned at 11:43.
Commissioner Minutes
January 16, 2019
Kiowa County Commissioners Meeting
January 16, 2019
Bert Lowery, John Bertram, Ronald Freeman, Kristi Cooper, Scott Brown, Matt Christenson, Jay Schmidt, Rick Sherer, DJ McMurry and John Unruh attended the meeting.
Consent agenda included: Agenda.
Bert opened the special meeting. Ron moved to approve the consent agenda as presented and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Spencer Jenkins with NextEra came per Ron’s request to talk about building potential windfarm for Kiowa County. He explained that they have just finished up in Pratt County and they are looking at new locations. He explained what they did in Pratt and would be in contact.
Meeting was adjourned at 1:00.
Commissioner Minutes
January 7, 2019
Kiowa County Commissioners Meeting
January 7, 2019
Ronald Freeman, Bert Lowery, John Unruh, Kristi Cooper, Chay Howard, John Bertram, Jeff Blackburn, Kerri Ulrich, Karen Butler, Matt Christenson, Jay Schmidt, Richard McVey, DJ McMurry, Ray Stegman and Chris Tedder attended the meeting.
Consent agenda included: Agenda and Commissioner minutes of 12/17.
After the prayer was given by Jeff Blackburn, Ron opened the meeting. Bert moved to approve the consent agenda as presented and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Jay Schmidt came to give updates for Public Works departments which included; crushed concrete placement, grading, facility operational plan, landfill, vehicle replacements and delivery of the new Bob Cat. He will get some quotes on vehicles and report back at the next meeting.
Ron adjourned the regular meeting and called the Board of Health (BOH) meeting to order. Kerri came to give updates which included; monthly service totals, SKCPH annual in-service dates, foot care, new employee and health fair. Ron adjourned the BOH meeting and called the regular meeting to order. Kerri presented a payroll change for N Zadina (new hire) for approval. Bert moved to approve the payroll change as presented and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Kristi requested a 5-minute executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee relations with Kerri. Bert moved for an executive session for 5 minutes at 9:34 and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Regular session began at 9:39 with no action taken. Kristi presented a payroll change for K Ulrich (6-month evaluation) for approval. Bert moved to approve the payroll change as presented and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Kerri asked them for an appointment for a Commissioner position on the Kiowa County Executive Board. After some discussion, Ron moved to nominated John Bertram and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0. Next, she presented the form for signatures for the appointment of the local Health officer.
Ray Stegman and Matt Christenson came to request to transfer funds to the special equipment fund for radio equipment and a new badge machine in the amount of $30,000. After some discussion Bert moved to approve the transfer and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Matt came to request to donate old computer equipment to local non-profit programs such as the Circles program, Art center and Media center. It was by consensus to allow Matt to donate them.
Regular session began after a short break.
Chris Tedder came to give updates for the SO. He presented a payroll change for J Scarbrough (merit increase) for approval. Bert moved to approve the payroll change as presented and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Other items discussed was vehicles and building quotes. He asked to transfer $200,00 to the Special Equipment fund to go towards purchasing a steel building to house vehicles. After some discussion Bert moved to approve the transfer and Ron seconded motion carried 3-0.
Karen Butler came to request to transfer $10,000 to the Special Equipment fund for office equipment and to encumber $5000 to her capitol outlay fund for office supplies. Bert moved to approve the encumber and transfer and Ron seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Richard McVey came to give updates with the court systems.
Chay Howard reported that he has received the information from Great Plains regarding their open records requests and that he will review the documents and bring it to the next meeting.
Kristi Cooper presented resolution 2019-1 and 2019-2 for approval. After she read the resolutions Bert moved to approve them as presented and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Kristi read aloud a letter for appointment for the Library board. John moved to appoint June Hickey per the letter and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0. She presented Tax corrections for approval. Bert moved to approve them as presented and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Next, she presented a resignation letter from G McFall for the Hospital Board and read aloud the names that were suggested. After some discussion Bert moved to nominate Felicia Minyard to the Hospital Board and Ron seconded, motion carried 2- 1(John opposed) Lastly, she requested to transfer $20,000 to the Special Equipment fund to be used for equipment. Ron moved to approve the transfer of $20,000 to the Special Equipment fund and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0.
During Commissioner discussion they discussed Elected Official salaries and was decided to table the topic till the next meeting.
Meeting was adjourned at 12:01
Commissioner Minutes
December 17, 2018
Kiowa County Commissioners Meeting
December 17, 2018
Ronald Freeman, Bert Lowery, John Unruh, Kristi Cooper, Chay Howard, Jeff Blackburn, Kerri Ulrich, Karen Butler, Jay Koehn, Matt Christenson, Jay Schmidt, Rosa Spainhour, Tina Thronesbery, Roger Stotts, Bob Schmisseur, Debbie Price, and Chris Tedder attended the meeting.
Consent agenda included: Agenda and Commissioner minutes of 12/03.
After the prayer was given by Jeff Blackburn, Ron opened the meeting. Bert moved to approve the consent agenda and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Kerri Ulrich came forward for the Board of Health (BOH) meeting. Ron adjourned the meeting and called the BOH meeting to order. Kerri gave updates which included client and service totals, flu shots, shingle vaccine doses, RN interviews, appointment of 2 new members to the board of Health, appointment for herself as Health Officer and phone allowance. Ron adjourned the BOH and called regular meeting back to order. Bert moved to approve the nomination of Mitzi Hesser and Morgan Allison to the Board of Health and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Bert moved to appoint Kerri as the new Health Officer and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Bert moved to give a $50 allowance for cellphone use as the Health Officer and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Jay Schmidt came forward to give updates for the Public Works departments. He presented quotes for lease options on a new skid loader for 5 annually yearly payments with warranty options from John Deere $8241, Bob Cat $8000 and Caterpillar $10,175. After some more discussion on leasing John moved to give Jay authority to go ahead with a lease of a new one if they don’t offer a lease for our current one and Ron seconded, motion carried 3-0. Next, they discussed purchasing grader tires in bulk from Allied tire out of Wichita for 10 tires for $8860 Bert moved to purchase the tires through Allied and Ron seconded, motion carried 3-0. Other items discussed were shoulder work being done north of Mullinville, new signage application being drawn up from Kirkham and Michael, Landfill facility operational plan meeting with Wayne Scritchfield and finishing up mowing. Last he presented a payroll change for B Schmidt (merit payout) for approval. After review of the payroll change John moved to approve it and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Rosa Spainhour and Tina Thronesbery came to request the amount of $26,799 to be taken out of the Special Equipment fund for the second payment for the new Zoll X-Series Cardiac monitors/defibrillators and will make the last payment of $12,645.53 next year per previous discussions.
Break called for 5 minutes 9:52
Ron opened the public hearing of the Keller subdivision regarding vacating roads. Roger Stotts and Bob Schmisseur were present for the hearing. Bert suggested that Oak Street and Mockingbird remain open and close all the other roads in the subdivision Bert asked if Roger if he had any objection on, he suggestion and Roger had no objection. Bert moved to keep Mockingbird and Oak street open and close all the rest of the roads in the Keller’s subdivision and John seconded, motion carried 2-1. Chay will work on drawing up the Resolution to be filed in the Register of Deeds.
Jay Koehn came to show the new fire truck that was purchased and discussed selling a old truck and it was by consensus to give Jay permission to sell it. They took a short break to look at the truck with Jay.
Debbie Price came to discuss the community building and fairgrounds. Wanted clarification on the maintenance of the generator at the fairgrounds and voucher process.
Karen Butler came forward to inform them she will be buying a new book and jacket sleeves for some of her books which will be around $1500.
Kristi Cooper presented tax corrections for approval. After review of the corrections, John moved to approve them and Ron seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Matt Christenson came to present quotes for computer equipment for several departments within the County from SHI $24,737.95, NMGI $26,710, Connection $26,223.58 and SCW $25,883.79. He explained that he would take this out of County General and individual departments will be invoiced to pay back the fund. John moved to approve the quote from SHI in the amount of $24,737.95 and Ron seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Chris Tedder came to give updates for this office which included, looking into building a garage and installing video visitation program.
During Commissioner discussion Kristi presented Resolution 2018-11 for vacating all roads in the Keller subdivision except Mockingbird and Oak Street. After review of the resolution. John moved to adopt Resolution 2018-11 and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Meeting was adjourned at 11:53.
Commissioner Minutes
November 30, 2018
Kiowa County Commissioners Meeting
November 30, 2018
Ronald Freeman, Bert Lowery, John Unruh, Kristi Cooper, Jay Schmidt and Jeff Blackburn attended the meeting.
Consent agenda included: Agenda, Payroll reports, AP reports and Commissioner minutes of 11/19.
After the prayer was given by Jeff Blackburn, Ron opened the meeting. Bert moved to approve the consent agenda and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Jay Schmidt came to give updates for the public works departments which Bobcat lease, payroll changes, job description change and road maintenance. Jay presented payroll changes for M Allsbury (merit increase) and C Erikson (new hire) for an approval. After review of the payroll changes Bert moved to approve them as presented and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Next, he presented a job description for equipment operator for the landfill. He explained that the department only had two job descriptions and that one was for recycle technician and solid waste foreman. He mentioned they no longer have a need for the recycle tech and that he changed it equipment operator and made changes to fit the new position. After review of the changes to the job description Bert moved to approve the new job description and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. The clerk requested an executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss employee relations for 5 minutes. Bert moved to go into executive session at 9:20 to discuss employee relations with Jay and Kristi, John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Regular session began at 9:25 with no action taken.
Break for 5 minutes till 9:30.
Kristi Cooper presented payroll changes for approval for S Butler(merit), T Neil(merit) and S Powell(separation). Bert moved to approve the payroll changes and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Next, she presented tax corrections for approval and Bert moved to approve the tax corrections and John seconded, motion carried 3-0
During Commissioner discussion they discussed the public hearing that was held last meeting in the Keller subdivision with John since he wasn’t present.
Meeting was adjourned at 10:35
Kiowa County Commission:
Ronald Freeman, Chairman Attest:
Bert Lowery, Vice-Chairman Kristi Cooper, County Clerk
John Unruh, Commissioner
Commissioner Minutes
November 13, 2018 Election Canvass
Kiowa County Election Canvassers Meeting
Courthouse Lower Level Conference Room
November 13, 2018
Ronald Freeman, Bert Lowery, John Unruh, Shelly Tuttle and Kristi Cooper attended the election canvas meeting.
Ron called the meeting to order for the canvas of the November General at 10:00 am with the County Clerk, Kristi Cooper presented the unofficial results in an abstract form. She explained that she had 5 advance ballots and 25 provisional ballots for the canvass. She explained that the 3 of the advance ballots would not count due to no return post mark was on the envelope and that she talked with the Kansas Secretary of State’s office and confirmed those would not count and why. She also explained that 10 of provisional ballots would not count and gave the K.S.A for those and the reason they would not be counted as well. She opened the 15 provisionals and 2 advance ballots and read the races aloud for each ballot. After checking that all totals agreed, Bert moved to approve the abstract as presented and verified and John seconded, motion carried 3-0 to certify the results by the Kiowa County Board of Canvassers.
Meeting adjourned at 11:22
Kiowa County Commission:
Ronald Freeman, Chairman of Election Board Attest:
Bert Lowery, Canvass Board member Kristi Cooper, County Clerk
John Unruh, Canvass Board member
Commissioner Minutes
November 5, 2018
Kiowa County Commissioners Meeting
Courthouse Lower Level Conference Room
November 5, 2018
Ronald Freeman, Bert Lowery, John Unruh, Kristi Cooper, Chay Howard, Jay Schmidt, Matt Christenson, John Bertram and Ellen Peters attended the meeting.
Consent agenda included: Agenda and Commissioner minutes of 10/31.
After the prayer was given by Ellen Peters, Ron opened the meeting. Bert moved to approve the consent agenda and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Jay Schmidt came forward to give updates for the public works departments. He informed them they finished the overlay north of Mullinville and will work on building up the ledges with rock and cliché. Also, will be taking out a culvert at Northern Natural and replacing it and they will be invoiced for labor and materials. Ron gave him an invoice from Heft and Sons brought in an invoice in the amount of $474,640 and explained the invoice is $10,000 higher than the original contract price due to 250 tons of extra material used per Steve Heft. John moved to approve the overage on the contract price and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0. They discussed other concerns on roads that they would like Jay to address.
Break was called till 9:30.
Matt Christenson came to talk about upgrading memory in the primary courthouse server due to them running on an old version. He presented 4 quotes for the upgrading of the memory which are as following: SHI $1536.00, SCW $1674.56, Connection $1840.00 and NMGI $2335.68. After some discussion on the quotes Bert moved to approve the bid from SHI in the amount of $1536.00 and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Commissioner Discussion the Keller subdivision and vacating roads were discussed with Chay Howard. He explained that no resolution, documentation filed in the ROD, or notation in the minutes could be found effectuating the vacation the roads in the Keller Subdivision.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:55
Kiowa County Commission:
Ronald Freeman, Chairman Attest:
Bert Lowery, Vice-Chairman Kristi Cooper, County Clerk
John Unruh, Commissioner
Commissioner Minutes
October 31, 2018
Kiowa County Commissioners Meeting
Courthouse Lower Level Conference Room
October 31, 2018
Ronald Freeman, Bert Lowery, John Unruh, Kristi Cooper, Jay Schmidt, Matt Christenson and Ellen Peters attended the meeting.
Consent agenda included: Agenda, Payroll reports, AP reports and Commissioner minutes of 10/15.
After the prayer was given by Ellen Peters, Ron opened the meeting. Bert moved to approve the consent agenda and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Jay Schmidt came forward to discuss public works departments. He presented payroll changes for W Williams (merit), M Harrell (merit), J Price (merit), J West (probation period) for approval. After review of the pay changes Bert moved to approve them and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Agreement of a local road safety plans in the amount of $5043. John moved to approve the contract with the Secretary of Transportation of KDOT and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0. Agreement for engineering services biennial bridge inventory and appraisal for bridge inspections with Kirkham & Michael. After review John moved to approve the agreement and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0. Next, he gave updates on projects they are working on.
Matt Christenson came to discuss repairing the electrical distribution panels at the commons and presented a bid from Sagebrush Electric in the amount of $2142.26 to be paid out of Commons building fund. Bert moved to approve the quote and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Next, he presented payroll changes for L Gwin (merit) and T Libby (probation period) and John moved to approve the changes and Ron seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Break was called for 5 minutes.
Kristi Cooper presented payroll changes for C Cantrall (merit) and T Butler (merit) for approval. After review of the changes Bert moved to approve them and Ron seconded, motion carried 3-0.
During Commissioner Discussion the Keller subdivision and vacating roads was discussed briefly.
Meeting was adjourned at 10:00.
Kiowa County Commission:
Ronald Freeman, Chairman Attest:
Bert Lowery, Vice-Chairman Kristi Cooper, County Clerk
John Unruh, Commissioner
Commissioner Minutes
October 15, 2018
Kiowa County Commissioners Meeting
Courthouse Lower Level Conference Room
October 15, 2018
Ronald Freeman, Bert Lowery, John Unruh, Kristi Cooper, Chay Howard, Jay Schmidt, Kerri Ulrich, DJ McMurry, Matt Christenson and Jeff Blackburn attended the meeting.
Consent agenda included: Agenda, Payroll reports, AP reports and Commissioner minutes of 10/01.
After the prayer was given by Jeff Blackburn, Ron opened the meeting. Bert moved to approve the consent agenda with the addition to the agenda and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Kerri Ulrich came for the Board of Health meeting (BOH). Ron adjourned the regular meeting and called the BOH meeting to order. Kerri gave updates which included school nursing hearing/vision testing, flu shots, turn out on the Emergency Preparedness exercise on October 5th, end of year reporting has started and shingle vaccinations. Ron adjourned the BOH and called the regular meeting to order.
Jay Schmidt came to give updates for public works departments which included Grant St overlay almost complete, landfill inspections passed and possible purchase of a backhoe for R&B.
DJ McMurry came early to talk about making a change on the pay plan for the deputies at a grade 13 and would like to move them up due to his employee has hit the max but this would affect other deputies. Ron asked him to see what Pratt County uses. Matt explained how the pay plan was created and how they came up with the wages and job descriptions. DJ will report back on his findings. Next, he talked about GIS and explained they are making changes for mapping through the State. The cost would be around $4000 to get started and it was by consensus to allow this new mapping system which will aide in multiple areas throughout the County. He explained the benefits for Kiowa County compared to Pratt County. There will be other costs associated with this new system but will talk to other entities who could use this new system.
Matt Christenson came to give IT update plans for next year which included email server change this week, Microsoft support change, moving to Windows 10 and replace 25 computers to the new operating systems, bulk order of computers for multiple departments, server refresh is needed for all our servers, replacement of a backup server next year. John asked if he had any information on quotes for the plans of the new building and he is still working on it. He hopes it will be ready for one of the 2 first meetings in November.
Kristi Cooper presented payroll changes for M Brown (merit), G Koehn (separation), R Walker (Part-time new hire), M Murski (part-time new hire), C Hacker (full-time new hire), S Powell (full-time new hire) for approval. After review of the changes Bert moved to approve them and John seconded, motion carried 3-0. Next, she presented a tax correction for removal of street assessment per tax sale for approval. After review Bert moved to approve the tax correction and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Break was called at 10:25 for 10 minutes.
Chay Howard discussed the Keller’s subdivision and the property and explained that it all needs to be vacated except for Oak street and that he could not find where any of those have been vacated properly in 1993. John wanted clarification on who would maintain that street and Chay explained that the County would be responsible for the upkeep. We will do a publication notice, notice to all residents that reside on that road, public hearing and record properly. They discussed holding the public hearing for November 19th to vacate Oak street. John moved to begin the notification process for vacating roads located in the Keller’s subdivision excluding Oak St and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0. Next, he presented the information for the open records request from Great Plains. They complied with our request per Chay. He will have them look over the information that he has given them and will see if they have any further open records request at the next meeting.
During Commissioner John asked if we had received the settlement check from Pratt Wells lawsuit and Chay reported that he has received the first month settlement check and has been given to the Treasurers office.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:25.
Kiowa County Commission:
Ronald Freeman, Chairman Attest:
Bert Lowery, Vice-Chairman Kristi Cooper, County Clerk
John Unruh, Commissioner
Commissioner Minutes
October 1, 2018
Kiowa County Commissioners Meeting
Courthouse Lower Level Conference Room
October 1, 2018
Ronald Freeman, Bert Lowery, John Unruh, Kristi Cooper, Chay Howard, Jay Schmidt, Matt Christenson and Jeff Blackburn attended the meeting.
Consent agenda included: Agenda and Commissioner minutes of 09/28.
After the pledge of allegiance, Ron opened the meeting. John moved to approve the consent agenda and Bert seconded, motion carried 3-0.
Jay Schmidt came to give updates for public works departments which included the county dumpster located in the City of Haviland and Ron brought up the road next to Pratt County and asked if they had any agreement on fixing the roads due to high truck traffic due to the new wind farm going in. Jay will contact them.
Matt Christenson came to give present a bid from Pueblo Concrete, LLC to seal the North wall in the amount of $2,300 for approval. Ron moved to accept the bid from Pueblo Concrete and John seconded, motion carried 2-0. Bert abstained from the discussion. They also touched on the subject of the new building.
Break for 5 minutes
Kristi Cooper presented a payroll changes S Tuttle (merit increase) After review of the change Bert moved to approve and John seconded, motion carried 3-0.
There was no topics for the Commissioner’s discussion and the meeting was adjourned at 10:00.
Kiowa County Commission:
Ronald Freeman, Chairman Attest:
Bert Lowery, Vice-Chairman Kristi Cooper, County Clerk
John Unruh, Commissioner