The Stevens County Board of County Commissioners met in regular session Monday, December 3 with all members, Joe D. Thompson, Pat Hall and Tron Stegman present. Also present were County Counselor Paul Kitzke, County Clerk Amy Jo Tharp and RoGlenda Coulter from The Hugoton Hermes.
Commissioners had a busy schedule: Rex Evans-8:30; Bills-8:45; Landmark Appraisal-9:00; Tony Martin-9:30; McCully & Associates-10:00; County Land-10:30; Amy Rich-11:00.
The Commissioners had already visited with Rex Evans when this reporter arrived. Minutes and bills were gone over. Motion was made and passed to accept the bills and pay them.
Rodney Kelling from EMS and Fire checked in. He reminded the Commissioners of the LEPC meeting Wednesday. They visited about firetrucks and ambulances that are getting in need of replacment. Rodney had checked into lease to buy plans.
Pat Hall waived his county health insurance.
Landmark representatives, Terry Lawhon, Tom Furhman and Cindy Wellbrock were next on the agenda. Landmark has been serving as Stevens County’s appraiser company for 30 years. They laid out their company’s plan which includes four counties that would be sharing an appraiser. This would include paying for the prospective appraiser’s schooling and mileage to the school which may be in Topeka. Eventually Landmark will phase out and turn over all the responsibility and the paying of this person to the four counties involved. Also they would possibly expect Cindy Wellbrock to become a county employee. Stevens County’s part might be a little more than some because it has more parcels of property. Gas and oil is a separate charge than real estate.
Tony Martin gave his report for Road and Bridge. He talked about a possible program from the state for road safety. Tony is going to work on this possible funding. They also visited about dangerous intersections.
Sheriff Heaton and Undersheriff TJ Steers reported in for the Law Enforcement Center.
William McCully from McCully & Associates came in to present their plan for appraiser. He has worked in this line of business since 1984 working in four states. Many of these years have been with Seward and Mead Counties. His company is now appraising for 16 counties. He says his company has a very good reputation and demands that it stay that way. The Stevens County appraiser would be Angela Eichman who has been the Seward County Appraiser and is now the Morton County appraiser. He said Angela is very knowledgeable in instances like Synata (Abengoa). Commissioners expressed their concern that Synata should be paying property tax of some kind while just sitting out there.
Mr. McCully will gather information and get a proposal for the Commissioners to look at for their company to serve as county appraiser. A decision needs to be made before the first of the year between these two companies.
Information was gathered together to start taking bids from farmers to farm the farm ground the county owns. It is really not known for sure how the ones farming the parcels now were granted the right to farm them. So it seems only fair that all farmers interested, especially the ones that are farming them now, have the opportunity to bid for a five year cash rent plan. A certified letter will be sent to the ones farming the parcels now as well as a phone call.
Amy Rich came in to join Amy Jo in asking about the comp time policy that was revised in May. They were seeking more clarification of how it is to be used. Commissioners clarified their original intent of the policy. No further changes will be made. P
aula Rowden came in and reported higher revenue for the Health Department. She also talked about a new drug and alcohol counselor in Hugoton. She has hopes for help with USD 210’s report of high misuse of opioids in this immediate area.
Commissioners moved into executive session.
