TUESDAY JANUARY 20TH MITCHELL COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING

Mitchell County Commissioners

Tuesday, January 20. 2015

By Terry Bailey

The Mitchell County Commissioners conducted their regular weekly meeting on Tuesday this week because of the Martin Luther King national holiday on Monday, January nineteenth.

Newly elected Chairperson for the two thousand fifteen calendar year, Tom Claussen, gaveled the meeting to order promptly at eight thirty. The Commissioners dispatched with a limited agenda in a businesslike fashion.

The Commissioners discussed the merit in cancelling meetings in the future when only one person is on the agenda with no checks needing to be written or no formal action needing to be taken. It was the general consensus of the Commissioners that it would be prudent to cancel a meeting when no imminent action is necessary in such cases. Commissioner Claussen observed, “There is no use for Jim Marshall to have a sixty mile round trip for a fifteen minute meeting.”

Larry Emerson, Public Works Superintendent, was the lone person on the agenda. Emerson informed the Commissioners that Casey Fragor, representative from Foley Tractor, will talk with the Commissioners next Monday about a new track loader for the landfill. He will be prepared to talk about options for a new loader and prices. Emerson said he had been told that there would be a delay of five to six months on delivery after ordering a machine. It appears that the company has very few, if any, machines in inventory.

Emerson also reported his crews have been doing spot graveling, mostly on roads in the southwest part of the county. He has also been looking for a new source of gravel and doing random testing. At this point, no new locations for gravel have been identified.

Commissioner Jim Marshall reported that he had talked with Ron Heller about renewing the contract to quarry gravel at the current location. Marshall believed Heller was reluctant to expand the quarried area.

Marshall thought that perhaps a higher price per cubic yard might entice Heller into renewing the contract. This lead to a discussion of what would constitute a fair price. Currently Mitchell County has been paying Heller a dollar fifty per cubic yard for gravel. The Commissioners and Emerson believed that raising the reimbursement to two dollars per cubic yard would be a fair price. Emerson and Marshall will check with Heller to see if the price increase would have any effect on future quarrying.

Commissioner Tom Claussen told Emerson that he had recently visited the County Shop and observed the mechanics at work. Claussen was impressed with the high level of mechanical expertise he witnessed, “A lot of the work I saw was the type of work many places would take to a big time truck center to have done. These guys are doing some top level work,” said Claussen.

Emerson asked the Commissioners about their thoughts regarding buying a new motor grader this year. He told them that all the machines were getting older and they all had lots of hours on them. After discussing the pros and cons of a new motor grader, the Commissioners decided they would like to finalize the purchase of the new track loader for the landfill and then see where they stood financially.

The Commissioners unanimously approved the two thousand fifteen contract with Pawnee Mental Health Services. The cost incurred to the county to help subsidize the programs in Mitchell County is forty-six thousand three hundred thirty-five dollars which is the same amount as the last few years.

County Clerk, Chris Treaster, announced that the filing deadline for all city positions in the county except for Beloit, school board positions, and extension positions is next Monday, January twenty-seventh at twelve o’clock noon. Election Day for those offices will be April seventh, two thousand fifteen.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA