Commissioners Hire RN for Health Department

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The Grant County Commissioners met on Tuesday, October 5, 2021 in the commissioner’s room of the courthouse. The meeting began at 9:00 a.m. with the monthly reports from the department heads. Chairman Mark McGaughey led the Pledge of Allegiance and Pastor Jon Becker offered the prayer. Others in attendance were Commissioners Kevin Shapland and Janet Stewart, Randy McCauley, John Crosby, Terri Trotman, Dana McDaniel, Mari Honstead, Kelly Premer-Chavez, Don Button, Sheila Brown, James Biddle, Ludi Gonzales, Richard Banes and Tammie Hensley.

County Treasurer Terri Trotman said that her department was getting ready for the next tax season. The delinquent tax letters have been mailed and Trotman says they are getting some response. She also said that she will be making another small disbursement soon.

Fire Chief John Crosby reported that September was a busy month. All trucks passed their ISO inspection and were certified. The department has responded to six fires, including the Birla fire which was a 17 hour call and a house fire which started in electrical wires in the attic. Crosby also said that a Firefighter I class would be held in Ulysses on November 2nd with 10 persons participating from Ulysses and 10 from around the area. Finally, the fire station will be hosting tours for local elementary students as part of Fire Prevention Week next week.

Kelly Premer-Chavez, County Attorney, said that her office is staying busy.

Richard Banes from the City of Ulysses reported that they were still fighting weeds around town. The City is in the middle of Fall Cleanup week. There is no building going on in Ulysses at this time.

Senior Center Director Ludi Gonzales reported that the center was hosting Junior Leadership the next day. She has a trip to the pumpkin patch scheduled for October 13th and a retirement reception for Sebastian on October 28th. She also is trying to set up a Halloween dance for the seniors.

Mari Honstead, Civic Center Manager, said that they are keeping busy and that there are quite a few events scheduled for October and November.

Public Works Supervisor Randy McCauley reported that Chris is continuing to spray weeds and that prairie dog season is beginning. The landfill has still been taking in lots of trash and with Fall Cleanup going on there is even more. The crews have been patching holes in county roads and helped Stanton County with chip sealing.

Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Don Button said that he has been busy. He has almost finished the next Incident Action Plan which goes into effect October 8th. A fly-over was done of the county for the 9-1-1 mapping. Button says they are currently going over the almost 2200 parcels that were mapped. A Homeland Security meeting will be hosted here next week.

Register of Deeds Dana McDaniel said she has been busy and still is looking for two employees.

County Clerk Sheila Brown said that her office was ready for the City Council/School Board election coming up on November 2nd. Advance voting opens on October 18th. She has set up an ARPA meeting on November 3rd for the commissioners. She also said that she had received budgets from all entities. Brown is planning website training after the first of the year. The Clerk’s office will no longer be selling county maps because of the death of their map provider. Brown also requested that department heads get their time sheets turned in on time!

Sheriff James Biddle reported that he currently had 17 in jail - 13 males and 4 females. The Sheriff’s office made 15 arrests in September. He made three trips to Larned State Hospital, one trip to Lamar on a warrant and two trips to DOC in El Dorado. Biddle says the new dispatcher worked on her own the night before and was doing a good job. The heavy rains caused some flooding in the basement of the law enforcement center. Service Master was called in to clean up the damage.

Commissioner Stewart reported that she and McGaughey had gone to Garden City for a legislative conference with the Kansas Legislative Policy Group. A number of legislators were on hand and spoke on a range of subjects. Stewart says she was very proud of the way Representative Marty Long spoke and thinks he is doing a good job of representing our area and concerns. She said one topic that was discussed was the Child Care issue. There is a dire shortage of child care providers right now. In Grant County, we have lost around ten providers in the past year. Stewart would like to see what can be done to alleviate this problem.

McGaughey said that he had attended the Home Products Dinner and there were several legislators present that he had a chance to visit with. (And the food was good, too!)

Brown announced that the commissioners had hired an R. N. for the County Health Department. Her name is Diana Guillen and she started work on October 4th.

The session with the department heads concluded at 9:45 a.m.

The meeting reconvened at 10:00 a.m. First up for discussion was the vacation pay at the health department. Several employees have more vacation than they can use before the end of the year. Instead of losing the vacation pay, they had requested to receive a paid vacation day at the end of each pay period left in 2021. Stewart made a motion that due to COVID-intense work conditions that anyone in the health department with more than 70 hours of accumulated vacation time would receive pay for one seven-hour day per pay period. McGaughey seconded and the motion carried.

Shapland moved to accept the 2022 calendar for the county. Stewart seconded and the motion carried. Shapland moved to accept the minutes of the last meeting and claims against the county. Stewart seconded and the motion was approved. A planned lunch and meeting with Centura Hospital for 11:00 a.m. was canceled by the hospital. 

The meeting was adjourned at 10:50 a.m. The next meeting of the Grant County Commissioners will be Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. in the courthouse.

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