The Grant County Commissioners met April 4 for their regularly scheduled meeting. Included on their agenda was bid openings for Grant County Road and Bridge, the Grant County Senior Center and the Grant County Courthouse housekeeping services.
Commissioners approved a bid from Weber Refrigeration and Heating to repair components of the Grant County Senior Center walk-in freezer. Air Comfort Consultants (ACC) bid $12,225 with an estimate of $500-1500 additional for shipping; and Weber Refrigeration quoted a cost of $11,990.
Three bids were received for housekeeping services for the Grant County Courthouse. SW Janitorial Services (current service) bid $650 per week, which after calculators were pulled from drawers and on phones came to a total of $2800.16 per month. Pucket’s Housekeeping submitted a bid of $3500 per month, and Caitlin Alexander bid $2500 per month. All bidders met requested specifications and carried the required insurance. It was unanimously approved to hire Caitlin Alexander at $2500 a month with County Clerk Sheila Brown asked to notify all bidders with the decision and confirming the insurance coverage.
A bid for professional appraisal services by Kubert Appraisal Group of $85,500 over three years (2024,2025,2026) was also considered and approved. The contract for services covers designated parcels owned and operated by Birla Carbon, Scout Energy and PraxAir. Kubert Appraisal is the current contractor engaged for these County services.
At the last Commissioner meeting in March, after miscommunication about the bidding process of equipment, Commissioners asked Public Works Supervisor Shawn Minks to bring new bids for a road grader to the commission with adjusted specifications and the envelopes sealed. Bids for a road grader for Grant County Road and Bridge department were opened at the April 4 meeting.
After a much detailed and extremely extensive discussion of matching specs, horsepower, weight, torque, fuel usage and savings, emissions, service warranties and service details, apples to apples aside, the actual equipment bid by one of the companies did not meet all of the additional specifications designated in the new bid request. Murphy Tractor and Equipment of Ulysses submitted a bid for a 770G John Deere machine of $424,355 (less trade in of $61,000 for a 210 Caterpillar 140m) for a total of $363,355. Foley Equipment bid a Caterpillar 140-185 Road Grader at $349,197.67 less a $60,000 trade in for a total of $289,197.67. More discussion ensued. Commissioner Marty Long said they were considering two machines with different features with a difference of $75,000, but only one company met the Specs.
Commissioner John Martin made the motion to accept the bid from Murphy Tractor for the JD Grader including trade in, for a total bid of $363,550. Commissioner Mark McGaughey seconded and the motion passed unanimously. The machine has a delivery date of October 2023.
Department Heads
Department heads for Grant County meet with Grant County Commissioners the first Tuesday of every month, informing the governing body of the County about their normal department business, the usual and unusual activities, the wants and needs of their departments and other routine requests. It also is a face-to-face opportunity for commissioners to ask questions and pass on requests of their own to the people at the head of day to day operations.
Grant County Treasurer Terri Trotman said the recent sending of warrants to residents on overdue personal property had garnered good response on the part of many, with her office receiving several calls inquiring about the warrants and even resulting in payments on some of those accounts. Trotman said she was waiting on return communication with the company that would handle the future property tax sale, and so had nothing new to report on that process.
Reminders about the second half of property taxes, which are due May 10, have been mailed.
Trotman questioned the commissioners about details concerning the ongoing pay scale study and how those numbers should be applied to the 2024 preliminary department budgets which are due in July. Should the budget include raises only for employees, or would department heads and elected personnel be included? And at what rate?
Commissioner Marty Long said five percent would probably be adequate for budgeting purposes for employees, and then, addressing all department heads in attendance, said budgets in July should be detailed, but more importantly, the commissioners want all department heads to submit a five-year plan. “Plans should have some degree of accuracy and effort put into them,” he said.
Commissioner Mark McGaughey added that in general, actual items, like bigger equipment foreseen to be needed, were more important to be included than actual dollar amounts.
County Clerk Sheila Brown said Budget Templates had been sent out, and since some department heads were relatively new, that if anyone had questions on how to complete the forms, what to include on the forms or needed more information on the process, to call or come by her office, that she would be happy to help.
Grant County Register of Deeds Dana McDaniel reported the TAZ Computer Services contract would be coming up for renewal in 2024 and it does not cover scanners, routers and other similar equipment, so those items would need to be included in her 2024 budget.
When questioned about progress on the microfilm and hard drive deed and record storage process, McDaniel said records back and up-to 1992 had been preserved. The goal is to get all records prior to the 1970s on computer in a researchable form, so it would be easier to access and become a possible income stream. She also said she has an opening in her department and that has slowed progress. McDaniel
Fire Chief John Crosby reported that while the county had recently had low numbers of fires, which was GOOD, the state, specifically the southwest corner of Kansas was under a warning for high winds (up to 70 MPH) with blowing dirt and extreme fire danger. He said fires were burning in the southeast part of the state with more expected [Tuesday, April 4] and that Kansas Governor Laura Kelly had issued an emergency declaration in case of needed action. The National Forest Service was preparing to defend the National Grasslands and areas in eastern Colorado. USD 214 schools and other area schools had called off classes (4/4/23) in anticipation of the forecasted winds. In other department updates, Crosby reported the new ladder truck had been delivered and training was commencing.
The Grant County Commissioners meet the first and third Tuesday of each month at 9AM. Meeting agendas and the official minutes of past meetings are available on the Grant County website: www.grantcoks.org. For more information or to be placed on the agenda of the next meeting. Call the Grant County Clerk’s office at 620-356-1335.
BWMH
Grant County Commissioners met with representatives of Centura Health for lunch at Bob Wilson Memorial Hospital.
The commissioners recessed at 11:45 a.m., and with County Clerk Sheila Brown, changed locations to the hospital, where they reconvened and went into executive session including hospital representatives Amanda Vaughn, Kristy Meier and Twila Lee.
On exiting the executive session at 1:10 p.m., commissioners and clerk returned to the courthouse where it was noted for the official minutes that no action would be taken
The only comment made was by Marty Long stating the structure of the relationship was not changing and that Centura would be issuing a press release this week addressing changes at the hospital.
No press release has been received as yet by the Ulysses News.
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