Commissioners Declare Grant County Gives Week

Grant County Commissioners knocked out business items fairly quickly during their October 18 meeting, from purchase requests to a proclamation.

First up before the commission was Grant County Community Foundation Executive Director Judy Keusler. Keusler spoke to commissioners about the organization’s Grant County Forever Campaign and the importance of it. At the conclusion of her presentation, Keusler requested that October 30 through November 5 be named Grant County Gives Week. Commissioners Kevin Shaland and Mark McGaughey both voted to approve the request. Commissioner Janet Stewart was absent.

Road and Bridge

Grant County Public Works Supervisor Sam Minks came before the commission with several items which Shaland and McGaughey approved:

ο Bid to Carlos Tires and Service of Ulysses for equipment tires not to exceed $7,204.

ο Bid to Rotary Cutter Supplies not to exceed $9,887 for lawnmower blades. Blades were last purchased three to four years ago. Mink noted that the Road and Bridge crews “go through a lot of them.”

ο Bid for posts to utilize for traffic control signage in the county not to exceed $7,065.  Minks reported the road and bridge crew go through 25 to 50 posts per year and they are currently running out of them. Bids were requested for 25 and for 100 posts and came back with a $9 per post difference in price when purchasing greater quantities at once. “If we get lucky,” Minks said, “we just have to replace the top of the posts and not the bottom (when they are damaged). Through harvest (time), we go through a lot. Those on the seven-mile road were replaced by the state last year.” Minks also reported they were waiting on bids for address signs; however, they don’t have cost information back yet. “These are the ones the fire department and ambulance were asking us to get,” Minks explained. “Once we have bids, (and one is approved) that cost will come out of the materials budget.”

Informational Items:

ο A backhoe grapple bucket was broken after Spring cleanup. Minks said after checking on costs to purchase three parts needed to fix the bucket, it was discovered it would cost $14,000 just to repair the bucket, and they wouldn’t be able to get the parts until February of 2023. “That’s the cost of just the three parts,” he said. “The teeth on that bucket were shredded on both sides. It would cost $15,000 to purchase a complete bucket, but I don’t know when we could get it in.” The damaged grapple bucket had 5,600 hours on it and was used for digging out culverts - digging dirt. Minks said he was giving the commissioners the “heads up” because if the other county backhoe “goes down”, they will be at a “standstill” on work.

ο Minks is continuing the search for a new employee to fill either an operator one or operator two position. “We have had 15 pickup applications, but only two people returned them,” he said. The operator two position is someone with experience, he added.

ο Road and Bridge crews have been unable to “do much” in some areas due to a lack of moisture. “We tried to blade one day and all we did was tear up the roads worse,” Mink said. “They were starting to blow out and all we were doing is covering up blow outs. I was afraid we would start causing wrecks, so we stopped doing that. We need rain bad. They (have been) fixing approaches on road E and 17 where they match up with asphalt better, instead of having a bump when you come up to the asphalt.” Commissioner McGaughey asked if they were working on the berms on the edge of the road, pointing out there was an accident on Schoonover’s road not long ago. “We grinded that up and repacked it again less than a year ago, but without moisture...” Speed in the area was also addressed. Speed limits were lowered to 50 in that area. “But that doesn’t mean they will go that fast,” Minks said.  This week crews will be working on road G. “Between Howard’s and Higgs’ (property) - it is eroded so much the gas line on the west side is only 18 inches deep, so we have to be very careful. It snakes in there and is not straight. We have to watch out for that gas line.... We thought about straightening it out, but the gas line will inhibit us from going that way. It will be better than it was (when they are done).” The gas line belongs to Atmos Energy.

Minks advised commissioners the east edge is pretty good at five foot deep. Another issue crews must watch out for are unmarked water and sprinkler lines. Minks said they will be contacting owners regarding those.

ο At the end of his portion of the meeting, Minks brought a new concern to the commission. He said it was discovered recently there is no landowner agreement for property where there is a container utilized for fireworks. The property is County property and the container is used for the city fireworks display.  “The ATF came by (recently) and checked - there is no landowner agreement,” Minks said. “There needs to be an agreement between the city and the county (regarding the placement of the container).”  Both commissioners expressed concern regarding possible liabilities and voiced that they were unaware the container was on county property. Minks will check further into the matter and report back to commissioners.

Eldercare Agreement

Senior Center Director Ludi Gonzales, spoke to the commission regarding the agreement with Eldercare for meals. In the new agreement with Eldercare, Gonzales explained, they will be “increasing what they are paying us.”

“For management service fees, they were paying a flat rate of $200 a month,” Gonzales continued. “They are changing it to $20 per serving day. We usually serve about 20 days a month, so that will raise it to about $400 a month. The stipend for the serving days for the time recorded, which is the kitchen staff - it used to be $100 and they are raising it by $105. So, they are increasing it by about $300 a month from what they had been giving us.” A new part of the agreement, according to Gonzales is “assessor fees”. 

“They are $12.50 per assessment,” Gonzales said. “They used to pay that to the actual person who is assessing for the AUIs, which are people on home deliveries. We have a form we fill out to keep them on home deliveries to keep them on every year. The assessor, which is either me or Marissa, they will now be sending that (money) directly to the county. They switched from sending us checks to automatically sending it to the accounts.” The assessments depend on the time of year, according to Gonzales, with some months only having one or two, and some may not have any. “It depends, she said, “they are yearly, so some people don’t stay on the delivery list for a whole year.” Gonzales said they need (commissioners) to sign off on the new agreement so it can be sent back to Eldercare. Everything else in the agreement was the same as it has been, she added.  Commissioners approved the Nutrition Service Agreement with Eldercare.

Ulysses Airport

Ulysses Airport Director Steve Rice was the final one to come before the commission. Rice visited with the commission regarding the engineer for the airport.

Commissioners approved Lochner Engineering to remain as the engineer for the airport for the next five years.

In other business:

There was only one bid thus far regarding airport furniture. Commissioners decided if “no one shows up by 5 o’clock with a bid it will be by default” and noted they “didn’t have much interest within our county.”

οCommissioners entered in to a 10-minute executive session for non-elected personnel, which included County Clerk Sheila Brown. The session was later continued at the end of their meeting for an additional 30 minutes. 

οCommissioners approved the minutes from the previous meeting, the calendar for 2023, and paying claims against the county.

οCommissioners approved a bid from Atlas Electric for KDOT project AV2022-38 to replace the runway 12-30 lighting system at a cost of $257,514.90. The cost is a 90/10 share with 10 percent to be paid by the county and 90 percent to be paid by KDOT.

Commissioners next meeting will take place at 9 a.m., November 1.