October 29, 2003

BOARD OF FRANKLIN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

The Board of Commissioners met in a regular session with Chairman John E. Taylor and Commissioners Fred E. Ferguson, Donald C. Hay, Donald R. Stottlemire and Donald E. Waymire present.  

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Taylor at 8:30.

Board discussed request from Ransom Memorial Hospital regarding payments for general obligation bonds.  Board asked Blaine Finch to contact Larry Felix and ask him to come in.

Board discussed United Way Campaign Drive.

Commissioner Hay moved and Commissioner Ferguson seconded to approve the minutes for October 27, 2003.  All voted “yes.”

Commissioner Waymire moved and Commissioner Stottlemire seconded to approve three change orders for the Midland Railroad Project, one for extension date of completion, second for concrete railroad crossing on Sand Creek Rd. and the third for sales tax exemption.  All voted “yes.”

Commissioner Hay moved and Commissioner Ferguson seconded to authorize and direct Logan Riley, L.C. to deliver all files and records pertaining to Franklin County to Dorothea Riley at Kutak Rock LLP.  All voted “yes.”

Commissioner Waymire moved and Commissioner Stottlemire seconded to go into an executive session for 20 minutes at 9:00 until 9:20 for personnel of non-elected with Board, Steve Brown, Blaine Finch and Kristie Stinebaugh present.  All voted “yes.”  Chairman Taylor opened the meeting at 9:20 and reported no action taken, no decisions made.

Board discussed incentives for employees that participate in United Way Campaign.

John Dowell discussed training in Wichita and said if all expenses are not covered, he has the money in his budget to pay it.

Jason Parks and Sara Caylor discussed getting a toll free number for CASA.  Sara said that they would like a toll free number for their volunteer advocates and children that they provide services for.

Commissioner Hay moved and Commissioner Ferguson seconded to allow CASA to get a toll free number, with CASA paying all the costs.  All voted “yes.”

Jason Parks discussed training for an employee in the Information Technologies Department.

Commissioner Hay moved and Commissioner Waymire seconded to allow Darin Gates to attend Exchange Server 2003 training.  The employee will pay for the training and his time in class will be considered as time worked.  All voted “yes.”

Board went to District Court Building to view remodeling.

Craig Davis discussed hiring a School Resource Officer for USD 288 and purchasing an additional marked vehicle.  Craig said the cost to the county this year would be around $20,000 this would be for salary, benefits and a vehicle.  Commissioner Stottlemire asked if we could keep one of the vehicles that we would trade next year for this position.  Craig said he would have no problem with that at all.  Craig said if we kept one vehicle the cost for this year would be around $6,620.  Craig is going to talk to Mike Folks and get back with Board.

Craig Davis discussed proposal to update 3 existing communications system for county-wide receiver voting system to enhance portable radio coverage.  Addition of a Rural Fire VHF repeater in Wellsville for enhanced pager coverage in NE part of county.  The quote received from TFM Comm is $105,295.85.  Commissioner Stottlemire asked if 25% of the cost could be paid out of 911 funds.  Craig said he will see how much money is available through 911 funds and contact Miami County about funding and get back with the Board.  Craig said that the county firefighters association is interested in adding an additional repeater due to the amount of radio traffic that is on the frequency at times.

Chairman Taylor closed the meeting for lunch at 11:50.

Chairman Taylor opened the meeting at 1:00.  All present.

Hub Casper, the engineer for Coffey and Anderson Counties in and discussed hiring an engineer versus an administrator.  Hub said that you don’t want to hire an engineer and make them an administrator, because of the salary that will have to be paid to get an engineer.  Hub said it will be hard to hire an engineer for government because of politic.  Coffey and Anderson Counties have a road supervisor and Hub is the engineer for both counties.  Hub said that they do chip & seal themselves and the lay down asphalt they hire out.  Coffey County hires a lot of part-time summer help to do chip & seal.  Blade operators do there own mowing of the ditches in their districts.  Anderson County has 8 blade districts, Coffey County has 10 blade districts.  Anderson County has started using more part-time help because of benefit costs.  Commissioner Stottlemire asked Hub if he thought we should hire an engineer or another administrator.  Hub said he thinks it would be better to hire an administrator for the Public Works Department and partnering with an engineer to do the engineering. 

With no further discussion the meeting was adjourned at 1:45.

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                                       Clerk                                                                                                                Chairman