It was business as usual for the Mitchell County Commissioners at their regular weekly meeting Monday morning with executive sessions taking up much of the agenda.
County Clerk, Chris Treaster met with commissioners for a 15-minute executive session on non-elected personnel at the commissioner's request. No decisions were made.
Brian Streit, Maintenance Supervisor, met with commissioners for a 15-minute executive session, with a five-minute extension, to discuss non-elected personnel at the commissioner's request. No decisions were made. Streit told commissioners representatives of Consolidated Foods Inc. plan to be here on December 10, to set up the kitchen and get it installed in the old law enforcement center building to fix meals for the prisoners housed in the Mitchell County LEC facility located on the North Campus. Although the original plan was to get the kitchen set up the first of November and up and running by the first of December plans now are to start fixing meals the first of the year.
Sheriff Doug Daugherty came in with a contract for the commissioners to sign with the Saline County Law Enforcement officials to house prisoners in the Mitchell County LEC jail facilities. After discussion the commissioners approved the contract with Saline County for the coming year of 2014.
Chairman Cooper advised the Saline County Commissioners are going to be discussing the prisoner housing issue in a meeting sometime this week. He asked Sheriff Daugherty to attend and if he couldn't to let Commissioner Tom Claussen know and he would attend the meeting. Although Daugherty said Saline County is very happy with this counties service he would plan to attend the meeting. Cooper said the meeting should to be a priority since Cloud, Ottawa and McPherson Counties are all putting in new jail facilities and we would hate to fumble the ball on this. Daugherty said the new Cloud County facility is not up and running yet.
Sheriff Daugherty said he has to meet with Judge Kim Cudney, Magistrate Judge of the 12th Judicial District, this week concerning security measures the Judges wishes to put in place for the Mitchell County Courtroom under the new Concealed Carry Act.
Chairman Cooper said two things are going to determine the number of prisoners other counties send to this facility. Number one is the service we provide and number two is the mileage they will have to drive to deliver prisoners here. One good thing is that most of those being sent to this facility have already been sentenced so it wouldn't take a lot of trips back and forth. He asked Daugherty to come back in a couple of weeks to discuss this and get his employee evaluations checked at the same time.
Larry Emerson, Public Works, brought in paper work for commissioners to sign on the Cost Closure Evaluation the State of Kansas recently required done in case something would happen and the Mitchell County landfill facility had to be closed. There are no plans to close the landfill as the landfill facility has 35 acres in it and the county bought 40 more acres a few years ago. Schwab-Eaton Engineer, Stewart Porter, was hired to do the necessary evaluation. Porter has taken over as the county's engineer since John Cashatt retired and is a little more expensive than Cashatt. The county employees had to close down the landfill pits and then reopen them. Porter set the accessed disclosure cost at $130,000. The commissioners signed the disclosure and it will be sent in to the State.
The wind recently tore the tarp and tracking off of the county's truck Dunstan Trucking uses to haul solid waste to the Rolling Acres facility in Topeka. A new tarp and tracking was ordered and should be back today so it will be up and going by the middle of the week, Emerson said. Eric Dunstan has two other trailers of his own and used them to haul material to Topeka. Emerson said his crew is still graveling roads at this time.
Commissioner Jim Marshall asked if Charlie Zaiss talked to Emerson about putting up yield signs on a township road where two roads meet where there is no stop sign.
Emerson said he did and he would sell him the signs but the county wouldn't be responsible for any liabilities that occurred due to placement of the sign.
Chairman Cooper had a complaint and a request for a copy of the sales slip on the metal from the landfill that the county sold earlier this year. The people complained they were not notified and given a chance to bid on the metal. Emerson will see that this is done and see that a notification is given the next time this transaction takes place.
Ed Debesis, Emergency Medical Services, was not on the agenda but requested a 15-minute executive session with the commissioners to discuss non-elected personnel. No decisions were made. Debesis informed the commissioners they have received no applications for the Paramedic position ads they have run for the past two months. He requested permission to go ahead and hire another EMT since they are short of staff at this time. Commissioners approved this action. He plans to get his employee evaluations done and in by the third week of the month.
Commissioner Marshall asked if all the ambulances were back up and running. Debesis said MC #2 still has problems but they have ordered parts and can still use it. He isn't going to worry about problems with the new ambulance, as they are mostly cosmetic. He asked if Clerk Treaster had received a check from the insurance company on it and she said she has. Debesis plans to start rotating yearly inspections on all of the ambulances to be sure there are no problems.
Commissioners approved a Neighborhood Revitalization Application for a new garage from Brent Cunningham of Glen Elder in the amount of $45,000.