Submitted by

Mary Kay Schultejans

County Clerk

The Board of Nemaha County Commissioners met in regular session on Monday, Nov. 13, in the Commissioner’s Room of the Nemaha County Courthouse. The meeting was called to order with Chairman Jason Koch leading the flag salute. Present also were Commissioners Ben Glace and Dylan Keim, County Administrator Mike Miller, and County Clerk Mary Kay Schultejans recording the minutes. Fr. Jim Shaughnessy led those present in an opening prayer to begin the meeting this morning.

Department Reports

Road and Bridge/Solid Waste Supervisor Adam Kuckelman, along with Office Manager Kathy Haverkamp, advised the board that:

• The guys are finished hauling chips at this time.

• The bridge guys will pour Bridge R-38 this week and it will be open to the public on Nov. 30.

• The bridge guys will then be moving to Bridge H-16, which lies between sections 5 and 6 of Rock Creek Township.

• They still have a couple more loads of blade patch to haul and then will be finished with blade patching for this season.

• Kuckelman has received the traffic counters that he has been waiting on and asked the commissioners where they would like to see the counters used while he has them.

• Michael Hagemann with KDOT spoke to the board about the compensation that the State will provide to Nemaha County for use of county roads as an unofficial detour next spring while the State is replacing a box culvert on Kansas Highway 9 near V Road. The State is currently willing to pay $25,000 to the county for use of these county roads at this time. The commissioners stated that they are asking for more money due to past State projects where the county has spent significantly more money to maintain unofficial detours than what the State provided to the county. The State and the county will continue to have open dialogue about these issues in the future. The board approved the contract with the State and to accept the payment of $25,000 from the State while Kansas Highway 9 is shut down. Chairman Koch signed the contract as presented.

County Administrator Mike Miller let the commissioners know that he and Senior Services/Public Transit Director Tammy Epple spoke to a company last week about a capital improvement plan for the flat roofs on county owned buildings. The board advised Miller to look into this issue further and possibly talk to other companies at this time.

Senior Services/Public Transit Director Epple came before the board. Following discussion, the board approved having the dishwasher plumbing issues taken care of at the kitchen at the Community Building by Adam Fleagle at a cost not to exceed $800.

The commissioners approved the Transit Public Participation Plan, the Limited English Proficiency Plan, and the Title VI Complaint Procedure Plan as presented by Epple.

The commissioners approved the Anti-Drug and Alcohol Misuse Prevention Policy as presented by Epple. The board signed the policy approval sheet as presented.

The board held a five-minute executive session to discuss the pay and performance of non-elected personnel. Present for the executive session were the Board of Commissioners, Epple and Miller. The meeting returned to open session with no action taken by the board following the executive session.

Keim stated that beginning Nov. 21 the custodian staff and groundskeeping staff will be supervised by County Administrator Miller. Senior Services/Public Transit Director Epple will not receive compensation for this following this date.

Emergency Preparedness Director Eddie Aldrine advised the board that:

• INA Alert is here to begin installing a camera system at the Courthouse and the Pioneer Building.

• Aldrine would like to schedule a public meeting to discuss a resolution declaring a countywide burn ban during red flag warnings. The commissioners advised Aldrine that they would like to look at this further before setting a date for a public meeting at this time.

• Aldrine is still looking at getting the tailgate fixed on the Emergency Preparedness truck. He presented to the board the quotes he received for this repair. Following discussion, the board approved 2-1, the quote from OC’z Paint Werkz in the amount of $1,665.20, with Koch voting nay.

Also at the meeting:

The board reviewed and approved the minutes from the Nov. 6 meeting.

Tom Gudenkauf came before the board to speak during today’s open public forum. Gudenkauf spoke to the commissioners on behalf of P&J Solid Waste Management about his interest in purchasing the county’s transfer station. The commissioners stated that they would take this under consideration.

Laurie Schmelzle came before the board to speak during today’s open public forum. Laurie spoke to the commissioners about property rights of local landowners. Schmelzle stated that she feels the Nemaha County Planning Commission is biased considering the development of wind farms in the county. Schmelzle also spoke about the revenue that wind farms would provide to the county.

County Attorney Brad Lippert came before the board. He let the commissioners know that Brown County and Marshall County have now declared Juneteenth as a holiday in their counties. Lippert stated that he wanted to make sure that executive sessions held to discuss the pay and performance of non-elected personnel are concerning one particular employee and not all employees as a whole. The commissioners advised that they were indeed being used to discuss one particular employee.

The board spoke to Lippert about the process that would need to be followed if they decided to sell any county property. The commissioners have not decided to sell any property, however, at this time.

The board approved moving maintenance employee Ed Braden from $16.51 per hour to $17.43 per hour, effective Nov. 21 upon his performance over the last 90 days of employment.

The commissioners approved the agreement with Computer Information Concepts for the training of the Administrator’s Office on the Timeclock Plus Program and the Payroll Program in the amount of $6,000, to be paid out of the Commissioner’s Fund. Chairman Koch signed the exhibit as presented.

The commissioners agreed to include a $50 gift certificate in employee’s November paychecks.

Commissioner Keim left the meeting room at 1:20 p.m.

The board reviewed vouchers submitted by the different departments, to be paid on Nov. 14. The board approved the warrants to be paid on Nov. 14 as presented.

The next regularly scheduled meeting was held on Monday, Nov. 20. These minutes were not available at The Herald’s press time.