March 8th Rooks County Commission minutes
(The following article is taken in part from the approved March 8th Rooks County Commission regular weekly meeting.)
The Rooks County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday, March 8th with commissioners John Ruder, Greg Balthazor and Tim Berland present. Clerk Ruthmary Muir was present to write the minutes. After Chairman Ruder opened the meeting, the Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Noxious weed director Mike Klein presented his annual report and the 2022 Management Plan for signatures. The commissioners signed the Annual Noxious Weed Eradication Progress Report 2022 and signed the 2022 Management Plan as well.
Klein mentioned he plans to advertise for help right away. He needs help with the spraying and also some office help. Any parttime job has an option to move to full-time if all works out. Road and bridge supervisor Rich Bouchey was present for his regular appointment and mentioned he would work with Klein to have a road and bridge employee start helping with the spraying. The commissioners thought this would be a good idea and approved to move Brian Cockrell to the Noxious Weed Department starting with the April payroll. Klein will continue to look for help in the office.
Bouchey said one of the graders had lost an engine. It has to be hauled to Concordia to Foley Cat. The Cat representative had given Bouchey a quote for a re-manufactured grader in the amount of $190,000.00. Bouchey would rather have them check on the amount it will cost to repair, which he thought would be around $30,000.00. Cat has several rebuild kits available, but they have not worked on it yet, nor have had a chance to see exactly what is wrong with it.
Bouchey had received a letter from the State with an agreement of projects the County has with the State—the Zurich Asphalt Project. The letter has been forwarded to Penco Engineer Jerol DeBoer as well. The letter stated giving the County six (6) months after the money is awarded to start the bid letting process for the project. The Board worried about being able to get quotes with everything being so expensive right now.
Bouchey presented a check in the amount of $10,428.10 for the cash and receipts received from the landfill, which the commissioners signed for deposit.
A second check received from the weed department to the Road and Bridge fund for fuel in the amount of $1,473.02 was endorsed for deposit as well.
The commissioners approved both the February landfill and road and bridge fee reports. Bouchey said the bridgework at 8 and G Roads is nearly finished. Reese Construction is picking up equipment and his crew has done some dirt work and plans to finish up with some fence work. Balthazor had received inquiries about what the grader operators are doing when the graders are parked during the dry weather. Bouchey said they have been fixing and replacing a lot of road signs recently.
Berland had received some information from Darrell Keller about how a walk-in roller works to pack roads. This was discussed with Bouchey. Bouchey mentioned he had driven the Township Lake Road with one spot needing to be filled in with asphalt.
Sanitarian Sherry Koster with NKLEPG was at the meeting and presented the monthly and biannual progress reports.
Koster and the Board discussed financials dropping lower and Koster working fewer hours. Four of the counties in the group meet every quarter. They have been talking about raising the fees. They do not want to raise the county match—just the fees. The Board agreed that the fees many need to be raised.
After the commissioners approved the February 28th meeting minutes, they met with Walter Hill and David Anderson with High Plains Mental Health Center. The two presented their funding request for the 2023 year. Sheriff Gary Knight, who is on the board of the HPMH Center was present as well. The request of $30,292.43 is based on a formula using population, how many persons served, stakeholders, the local income of the people residing in the county, and whether a service center is located in Rooks County.
Ruder made a motion to sign a letter of acceptance to the grant committee with the Kansas Historical Society for the grant received for the masonry work to be done on the Courthouse. The motion was seconded and approved. The commissioners then signed the W-9 form and the electronic deposit form the Historical Society grant committee will need.
Ruder then made a motion to pay the County dues to KCCA in the amount of $209.00, which was seconded and approved.
The commissioners approved the insurance bill in the amount of $185.50 from Heritage Insurance for the special event of the Spring Show to be held at the Rooks County Fairgrounds.
The following bond reimbursement checks from townships #4 in the amount of $147.96, for Township #5 in the amount of $4.67, and for Township #8 in the amount of $90.36 were then approved and signed by the commissioners.
In their weekly reports Ruder said he had been informed that a person wants to purchase a building in downtown Plainville to tear down and build new and/or sell. The county clerk will check and see if this property is on the tax sale listing.
Berland and Balthazor had already talked of road and bridge supervisor Rich Bouchey about the road concerns and other items they had received.
Balthazor has upcoming meetings including Work Force One, Northwest Kansas Juvenile Justice and Community Corrections, with an educational webinar to join the Work Force One session.
Ruder reported on his meeting with Senior Services. There are currently thirty-one beds filled at the nursing facility and the assisted living complex is full as well. There is still agency staffing being used.
The commissioners then reviewed and signed weekly vouchers as presented.
Before adjourning the meeting, the commissioners signed the Rooks County Uniform Guidance Policies and Procedures. This is a requirement to fulfill obligations needed to be put in place for any federal funded projects.
