The Stevens County Board of County Commissioners met in regular session Monday, August 3 with Pat Hall and Joe D. Thompson present. Also present were County Clerk Pam Bensel, County Counselor Paul Kitzke and RoGlenda Coulter from The Hugoton Hermes. Dave Bozone was ill, but was able to come in at 10:00 a.m. for the meeting with Jack Rowden and the City Council.
The following is just an agenda for the morning with a few of the unofficial highlights. Official minutes may be published at a later date.
When this reporter arrived, the bills had been looked over and Vernon Anderson had stopped in. Motion was made to accept and pay the bills and to approve the minutes.
Rodney Kelling was next on the agenda. Pat explained how much it is costing to pay insurance to EMTs who are not full-time but are still getting insurance and hours. The insurance is due to the Affordable Care Act. It was discussed about hours and how to rearrange them and if it would be better to have a full-time EMT on staff, similar to several surrounding counties. During the discussion it was expressed how thankful all are that these EMTs are willing to take the shifts not everyone wants to take. It is a state requirement for two EMTs to be on-call 24/7. The on-call hours are counted into the hour count, although they are usually not actually working during this time. Rodney is going to do some figuring with this issue. Rodney later brought in the schedule to show the Commissioners.
Rodney asked if Paul had the legal details for the truck bids he was needing. Paul told Rodney to call him. The remodeling is still waiting – it has been two months now. This is the critical time the windows need to be covered and the electric bill is still high. Pat will check into it.
Tony Martin came in for Road and Bridge. The Commissioners first asked him about some details about the fair. It was a very successful fair with a large attendance. Tony then went on to talk about the Road and Bridge. He thinks they have the issue with the person working his own road worked out but Paul is still going to send out a letter explaining the liability details. Pat asked Tony about a possible culvert in a road having a washing out problem.
Susan Schulte came in to talk to the Commissioners. There was some questioning about who is responsible for paying for the care of the landscaping in the library parking lot. It was stated the library is responsible. Susan then told the Commissioners about a problem with the air conditioning on the third floor. She has contacted the company that installed it and they will stand behind it and fix all issues pertaining to it.
Sheriff Ted Heaton checked in. He told of some damage in the Law Enforcement Center to computer systems due to the recent power outage and power surge.
Next on the agenda was the City Council and Jack Rowden. The reason they were invited was in regard to the cost of the dispatcher service. It was decided ten years ago to help out the city by lowering the amount the city shares with the county for dispatcher service from 50/50 to 30/70. Dave said he did not vote in favor of this decision but it was felt that the county could afford to help out the city who was asking for help at that time. Now the county has lost a lot of its valuation and is having to find ways to save money and where to make cuts.
Tom Hicks, Jack Rowden and Frankie Thomas came in to represent the city. Tom had prepared a lengthy letter stating their viewpoint. A few of these points were: Other entities use the dispatcher service also like – EMS, Fire, Highway Patrol, Fish and Game and City of Moscow. Tom stated the city has no control or input with the dispatchers’ salaries or benefits. He says the main reason the city opposes the increase is, in rounded numbers, the county’s valuation is $125,000,000. and the city’s is $19,000,000. For the first six months of 2015, what the city has paid would be doubled. This would save the county three tenths of a mill, it would force the city to increase its mill levy by 2.2 mills. And finally, the city’s 2016 budget has been published. If the county had plans to try and pass on significant costs to the city, this discussion should have occurred two months ago. The letter went on to say the city knows the county is looking at every way to keep tax increases to a minimum.
Joe made the comment that they were working hard to save jobs. The county has cut most all the fat possible from the budget. He stated the split was made to help the city ten years ago and now the shoe is on the other foot. Joe feels if the city is able to help out they should. He asked if the city was giving cost of living raises and the answer was yes. The county will not be able to give out cost of living raises this year.
Pat brought up raising the sales tax. That was felt would be the most fair and Stevens County would still not be higher than surrounding towns. The city representatives suggested letting some of the grass go without so much water. They also said that if the president has his way with the electricity plants – electricity will be raised a lot in the future.
Ted Heaton said he thinks the charge should be equal and he didn’t understand why it ever got changed. If the city did not have the sheriff’s dispatching what would they do? They would have to have a set-up with radios, etc., the paid employees with benefits included and a place to put them. Ted expressed he
knew this was an unrealistic idea and he has no problem in dispatching for the city, but he does think the city should definitely pay half.
Joe expressed his appreciation for the city coming in and being able to talk with them.
More discussion followed about the EMS hours after the city representatives left. Meeting adjourned.
