Report from the Bates County Commission
October 29, 2025 The Bates County Commission met with Presiding Commissioner Jim Wheatley, Northern Commissioner John Gray and Southern Commissioner Trent Nelson present.John Longworth was in to discuss a problem in Elkhart Township where county road 5001 joins at 8002. The culvert across 5001 is plugged up. He said Terry has dumped gravel on the road, but it hasn’t fixed the problem. John Longworth was told that Bill won’t put a new culvert in because Burches will just run over it again and plug it up. The problem has been ongoing for several years and is not getting fixed. He asked if the County could put a concrete protector at the end of the base of the culvert. He would like the Commission to help him find a solution. John Gray said he would go out and look at it and talk to Bill. He said Bill is good at going out and fixing problems.
Kacie Robey Collector/Treasurer gave the Commission an update on the software situation. Her office has been working with Governmentor since July of 2024 on the new software. As of today, she is still unable to print tax statements. They always print in the first part of October. There is a glitch in the system that won’t send the statements to the printer. There are 25,000 statements that must be printed, stuffed in envelopes and postage put on them. Even though statutorily they don’t have to be mailed out by December 1st, they have always been sent out November 1st which is still her goal. Everyone in the building has offered to help her office meet that goal. Kacie stated that we are going to have to look at different software in the future. Other counties are having the same problem with Governmentor. John asked her what the Commission could do to help her. She said she needs help from the Commission to help with stuffing envelopes. All three of the Commissioners offered to help her. They are just waiting on the software. She can’t even take payments until the statements have been printed. Kacie is upset about the comment that John made on her Facebook post that she made on her personal page last night. She said that she does not have a problem with the Assessor’s Office. John called out the other office about the employees playing on their phones. Kacie said she knows John has a beef with the other office. John said that Kacie had told him that she did too. Kacie said that she had worked out her problems with the other office. She doesn’t care about pointing fingers. Kacie has updated the Commission several times over the last two weeks about the software issue. John apologized for not being in the office on Monday due to his wife having cancer surgery. John asked again how they could help her. She said there was nothing they could do at this point. She is just waiting on the software. Kacie doesn’t appreciate John saying they are not doing their jobs. John responded to her and said "I never said that. I only repeated what you told me." Jim asked Kacie to keep them updated.
The Commission discussed Governmentor and the problems everyone is having. They said it might be time to look at another company. Jim didn’t know how changing companies would affect Jami’s office with her running the tax books. Jami stated that she will probably be forced to change software if the other two offices change. John thinks they need to contact Gene with Governmentor and get his side of what is going on.
The Commission approved invoices for payment.
The Commission discussed Resolution 2025-4 for establishing a board to review and recommend expenditures of opioid settlement funds. John made the motion to adopt the resolution. Trent seconded the motion. Jim stated that if Judge Highley suggested any changes, they can amend the resolution. All were in favor. Motion carried. The resolution was signed by the Commission and attested by Jami Page, County Clerk. The resolution was given to Shelli White for her to give to Judge Highley.
Lee Schofield and Lindsey Chaffin with Great River Engineering and Andrew Diehl, Tyler Parrack and Kyle Fritter with Buildet were in for a pre-construction conference on the courthouse sidewalk improvements. Lee is the Project Manager. Buildet will demo the existing sidewalk and construct a new 8 ft sidewalk with a landscape buffer between the building and walkway. All walkway improvements will meet ADA requirements. They will also install new entrance ramps with handrails. Andrew said they would prefer to start next week with getting materials on site. The physical work will start the following week. They will have 80 calendar days to complete the project. Great River Engineering will do an inspection weekly. Commission signed the contract documents.
Lindsey gave the Commission the contract for Bridge 4850012 on county road 3286. They discussed whether to do a flow line. Jim signed the contract. Bill Stephan will need to go out and see if there is natural rock there and the depth of it. This project should start next summer.
Darren Fischer from Rattlesnake Hill came in to see if there was anything the Commission can do about getting residents to sign the easements at Rattlesnake Hill. He asked what would happen if not everyone signed it. The Commission told him that everyone had to sign it. There was nothing they could do if they didn’t sign it. Jim said Darren would need to contact an attorney. Letters were mailed out to notify everyone, but some are still refusing to sign. The $50 fee is for the title company to prepare the easements and record them. Darren said people are getting frustrated and they are at a standstill. He asked if the people that have already paid the fee could be reimbursed. If they just sign the easement that would allow the township to get CART money, and they could then maintain the roads. The township received $15,750 in CART money this year. Jim said their attorney told them that there wasn’t anything they could do to maintain a private drive, and they couldn’t force anyone to sign the easement. Currently 13 residents have signed and 8 have not. Darren asked Trent to organize another meeting. Darren will follow up with the Commission in two weeks. He feels that the Commission needs to contact these people.
