MITCHELL COUNTY COMMISIONERS MEETING MONDAY AUGUST 23RD

Mitchell County Commissioners

Monday, August 22, 2016

By Terry Bailey

The Mitchell County Commissioners conducted their weekly business meeting at the Courthouse on Monday, August 22^nd. All Commissioners were present as well as the County Clerk. Also present was Mitchell County Attorney, Mark Noah.

The first item of business was to confer with representatives from Dunstan Trucking and their attorney, Jim Johnson. On January 1, 2017 Mitchell County will no longer be involved with the billing or collecting of fees for residential and business refuse removal. At that point the trash collection vendors will have contracts in place with each municipality within the County for refuse service. At this time, the Mitchell County governance body is removing itself from the business and Dunstan’s is formulating a contract to provide those services with each town in the County. The meeting Monday was one in a series of meetings to fine tune the agreements and to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s.

The regular business meeting was recessed to conduct a ten minute executive session for the purpose of discussing confidential trade secrets of a corporation.

At the end of the closed session the Commissioner voted 3 to zero to accept the contract presented by Dunstan Trucking for the purpose of refuse removal within Mitchell County.

Larry Emerson, Public Works Superintendent, reported that the roads in Lulu Township have bladed and look to be in good condition. Additionally, the road ditches in Lulu Township have also been mowed.

Emerson also told the Commissioners that the overlay work on the Spicer Road has been completed. They have started overlay work on West Main Street.

Emerson said that two hundred guard rail posts to be used on the Causeway Road have been ordered. The recent collision by a vehicle with the guard rail on the Causeway destroyed 18 posts. At this point there is no report of what happened at that site or who was responsible.

When water damage or other damage occurs to the roads, Emerson encourages residents to call his office and report such damage. He said, “We could drive over half the roads in the County and not come across damaged roads. The best way for us to know about damage to roads is for the citizens to call us and let us know where problems have occurred.”

Cathy Robertson, Superintendent of U.S.D. #298, Lincoln Schools, spoke to the Commissioners about funding issues. There are about 20 students living in the southern fringe of Mitchell County who attend school in Lincoln. House Bill 2001 created a loss of about $150,000 for USD #298. This was the last of several years in which Lincoln schools have saw reduced funding. Ms. Robertson wanted to alert the Commissioners that if any grant funding or other sources of revenue became available for which her district might quality, she would appreciate notification.

Tammy Kimmenau and Jay Rowh representing Solomon Valley Transportation were present to provide a report to the Commissioners regarding the local public transportation service and to thank Mitchell County for their help and support. Rowh said before Solomon Valley Transportation was in service, the old Senior Citizen bus service logged 300 miles in one year and gave 18-20 rides within Mitchell County. This past year, SVT covered over 214,000 miles and served 10,944 patrons.

Rowh commented, “We want people to be able to stay and live in Mitchell County if they want to. We do not want the inability of people to access needed services to be a reason to have to move away.”

SVT has a suggested donation of $4 each way for trips out of the County. This is a suggested amount and if someone is not able to pay they will be gladly transported anyway. For trips within the Jewell-Osborne-and Mitchell County, the suggested donation is $1.50 each way.

A 24 hour notice for needed transportation is appreciate for in area trips and 48 hours’ notice for out of area trips.

The Meeting was then adjourned.

Other News

Beloit, KS 67420, USA