The Bates County Commission met with Presiding Commissioner Jim Wheatley, Northern Commissioner John Gray and Southern Commissioner Trent Nelson present. Approved bills.
Trent made the motion to purchase the pickup for Road and Bridge from Max Motors totaling $50,400.00. John seconded. All voted yes. Motion carried. No Opposition.
Bill brought in a bid on the Truck from Shawnee Mission Ford of $50,383.00. He has used in the past and they have provided an easy purchase and delivery. Jim got a quote from Max Motors and after some back and forth got them to come down to close to the price of $50,400.00. Jim states "We decided to support Local."
Trent states, “John and I went over to the courthouse on Thursday.” Part of the ceiling fell during court proceedings. The roofers are to be down to as soon as weather permits to repair the ice damage to the roof that caused a leak in the courthouse. The interior will have to be repaired as well with SHPO involved.
Jim stated he attended the Kaysinger Basin meeting on Thursday 1/16/2025. He plans to attend the next one as well on Tuesday 1/28/2025.
Jim has on his agenda The Work Force Development meeting today. He will try to get to the second one.
James Krstolich with Ideatek came in to ask for support. They are applying for the broadband infrastructure grant and are looking for support from the county in the form of money permit waivers or a letter of support. There are 205 homes they are targeting. These are rural homes and not part of a current broadband connection. Jim asked if any of that money was going to any other rural entities such as water districts, fire departments, or food pantries to provide help for the people? Jim states how the Commission got negative push back for not giving the ARPA money to the “Broadband Trash”. Broadband has had funding support then and is looking to have continuing funding support. Jim stated they haven’t any funds available but if he would email a template for a letter of support the commission would talk it over and let him know.
Items noted from sign in page, with no recorder present during meeting.
• 1/15/2025Terry Bettels with Senior Services Board brought in a list of the updated officers and members. There was an error discovered. She brought back a corrected one later.
• 1/15/25 Jim Roberts with LEPC had come in to report on a grant they have been working on and verify it was added into the budget. He also mentioned getting a fire blanket for electrical fires especially for the purpose of electrical car fires.
Work in Progress updates:
• Amanda Davis with Davis Construction meeting that was missed due to inclement weather on 1/6/20245. She was questioning the late penalties on her property purchase in 2022 that was never changed into her company’s ownership in the Assessor’s office. After looking over the documents the Commission had decided to waive the late penalties and called her. They then voted on 1/22/2025 to waive the penalties.
John made the motion to waive the late penalty fees due to clerical error in Assessors Office. Trent seconded the motion. All vote yes. Motion carried. No opposition.
• The motion Ken Mooney made on 12/18/2024 for a bi-weekly pay day for county employees. This motion was tabled and buried due to Ken leaving the office.
• Policy Regarding Indigent Cremations given 8/25/2023. To remain a work in progress.
• Policy Regarding Computer, E-Mail, Devices and Social Media given 2/14/2024 To remain a work in progress.
• Bid for Hallway lights given 2/14/2024. To remain a work in progress.
• Telephone Contracts 3/11/2024. To remain a work in progress.
• Senior Tax Credit 9/9/2024. To remain a work in progress.
• Office's desk window remodel/ Security 9/11/2024. To be removed the bid was $94,000.00. Per Jim, there were other bids that were about the same. No copies of any bids were available.
