The Board of Marshall County Commissioners met in regular session with Keith Bramhall, chairman, Fritz Blaske, member, Jon Ungerer, member and County Clerk Sandra K. Wilson present. Chris Pannbacker with the Marysville Advocate was also present for the meeting. Austin Cline joined the meeting at 9:15 a.m.
Commissioner Bramhall called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. The meeting was opened with the flag salute.
Fritz Blaske moved, seconded by Jon Ungerer to approve the minutes of the 12/02/24 meeting and the agenda for today’s meeting. Unanimous.
Interim Appraiser Tami Antoine met with the Board. Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Jon Ungerer to go into executive session per KSA 75-4319(b)(1) to discuss matters of non-elected personnel – employee evaluations with the Board and Appraiser Tami Antoine present to return to open session in the Board meeting room at 8:40 a.m. Unanimous.
No action was taken as a result of this executive session.
Interim Appraiser Tami Antoine recommended a step raise for Laura Butler to deputy appraiser at the rate of $23.30/hour effective 12/11/24.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Fritz Blaske to approve a step raise for Laura Butler to deputy appraiser at the rate of $23.30/hour effective 12/11/24. Unanimous.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Fritz Blaske to approve 3 abatements for a total tax amount of $26,542.32. Unanimous.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Jon Ungerer to approve the following purchase orders. Unanimous.
M & M Tire LLC, Washington, KS
For 4 Advance 1400R24 graded tires
$4,550.00-Road & Bridge Fund-P.O. #109645
Truck Repair Plus, Marysville, KS
For labor & replace parts
$3,702.46-Road & Bridge Fund-P.O. #109644
Kone, Inc., Kansas City, MO
For labor & materials to remove & install plunger packing, replace elevator lights
$2,680.00-County General Fund-P.O. #109642Public Works Administrator Mike Craig met with the Board. He presented a bid from Hometown Lumber for an 8’ x 8’x 7’ utility shed to be put in Bremen to keep grader supplies.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Fritz Blaske to go into executive session per KSA 75-4319(b)(1) to discuss matters of non-elected personnel – employee evaluations with the Board and Public Works Administrator Mike Craig present to return to open session in the Board meeting room at 9:10 a.m. Unanimous.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Fritz Blaske to extend the executive session per KSA 75-4319(b)(1) to discuss matters of non-elected personnel – employee evaluations with the Board and Public Works Administrator Mike Craig present to return to open session in the Board meeting room at 9:20 a.m. Unanimous.
No action taken as a result of these executive sessions.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Fritz Blaske to approve condensing of Public Works payscale from 15 steps down to 9 steps effective for 2025 payscale effective 12/26/24. Unanimous.
There was a KDOT traffic study done in 2021 on 30th Road North of Axtell which reported 215 motorists per day. Public Works Administrator Mike Craig got an estimate from Hall Brothers for a 6” thick by 24’ wide paved road from Meadow St in Axtell North to Granite Road which is 1.64 miles in the amount of $868,799.50.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Fritz Blaske to approve the bid from Hall Brothers for a 6” x 24’ paved road from Meadow St north to Granite Road on 30th Road North of Axtell to be paid out of Capital Improvement Fund in 2025 in the amount of $868,799.50. Unanimous.
Jon Ungerer moved, seconded by Fritz Blaske to approve Resolution 20-24-12-9-1 setting the Commissioner meetings, payroll dates and Holiday schedule for 2025. Unanimous.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Jon Ungerer to recess the meeting at 9:57 a.m. to be reconvened in the basement meeting room for the Department Head Meeting. Unanimous.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Jon Ungerer to reconvene the Department Head Meeting at 10:02 a.m. Unanimous.
Grace Grable with Agency on Aging reported that Ashley & Kate were doing a training today for their commodities distributions. The cement pad for the new generator has been poured and Kansas Gas is working on the meter replacement. They will be implementing a new KDOT program for tracking rides. December 18th the Marysville High School Choir will be at the Helvering Center for lunch and to entertain the diners.
Register of Deeds Ruth Martin recently attended the KAC convention in Wichita. They will be installing a laptop in the vault. They are busy filing end of year documents.
Megin & Arlene with Marshall County Extension office reported they are busy seeing patrons for Medicare enrollments. The 4-H achievement night was recently held and Megin is working on the Banker’s Awards which will be coming up in February.
County Health Nurse Cheryl Skalla said they are finished with their community outreach clinics for the year. They will begin them again in March. They administered 2,716 injections this Fall. The Health Dept. has winter coats, hats and gloves available for those in need of these items.
Liberty Price-Obley Clerk of the District Court reported they are staying busy. They have a court reporter who will be retiring in March of 2025 and they are looking at voice recognition equipment to replace this court reporter.
Interim Appraiser Tami Antoine reported that this is a very busy time in their office. She has just completed her Market Modeling for the year and they will now begin to drive the County to do their final review for the 2025 January values.
County Attorney Brad Lippert stated that Asst County Attorney Andy Lohmann recently accepted a job in Topeka at the Attorney General’s office. Luke Sunderland of Sabetha will take the place of Mr. Lohmann as Asst. County Attorney.
Emmy Sedlacek, Deputy County Treasurer reported that their office is busy collecting taxes.
Emergency Management Director Bill Schwindamann Jr. said he is glad to be back to work. They are finalizing the Emergency Ops plan, finished the Mitigation Plan and EMP grant – submitting training to the State for approval. They will be working with the State Forestry Service on a back burning clinic.
Public Works Administrator Mike Craig reported that the crews are staying busy cleaning ditches, cutting trees and getting ready for winter weather. Several of the Road & Bridge employees recently took the CPR class given by the Health Department.
County Clerk Sandy Wilson said they got the election finalized, working on annual reports for the townships which are due by the end of January 2025 and getting caught up on land transfers. New accounts payable clerk Jeanette Diehl started today and Amanda Svoboda will be the new HR/Payroll person and she will start on 12/16/24.
Commissioners – the commissioners informed the department heads that they will be working closely with the new Human Resources person to develop job descriptions for each position and work on implementing employee evaluations within the next year. Commissioner Bramhall thanked the department heads for all their hard work and said he really appreciates and has learned a lot from these quarterly department head meetings. Commissioner Blaske feels that positive changes have taken place and hopes the new administration will continue to make strides in that direction for the betterment of Marshall County.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Jon Ungerer to recess the meeting at 10:48 a.m. to reconvene back up in the Board meeting room. Unanimous.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Jon Ungerer to reconvene the meeting at 10:52 a.m. Unanimous.
County Counselor Anthony Bruna met with the Board.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Jon Ungerer to go into executive session per KSA 75-4319(b)(2) to discuss matters of attorney-client privileged discussions – litigation with the Board, County Counselor Anthony Bruna and County Attorney Sandy Wilson present to return to open session in the Board meeting room at 11:10 a.m. Unanimous.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Jon Ungerer to extend executive session per KSA 75-4319(b)(2) to discuss matters of attorney-client privileged discussions – litigation with the Board, County Counselor Anthony Bruna and County Attorney Sandy Wilson present to return to open session in the Board meeting room at 11:15 a.m. Unanimous.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Jon Ungerer to extend executive session per KSA 75-4319(b)(2) to discuss matters of attorney-client privileged discussions – litigation with the Board, County Counselor Anthony Bruna and County Attorney Sandy Wilson present to return to open session in the Board meeting room at 11:20 a.m. Unanimous.
No action taken as a result of these executive sessions.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Fritz Blaske to adopt and approve the settlement agreement with Francine Crome. Unanimous.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Jon Ungerer to approve the following purchase orders. Unanimous.
Steven Kraushaar, Marysville, KS
For contract attorney fee
$3,250.00-District Court Fund-P.O. #7333
Ms Co Partnership for Growth
For 4th quarter appropriation
$13,750.00-County General – appropriations-P.O. #7354
4-H Fair Building Fund
For 4th quarter appropriation
$2,625.00-County General – appropriations-P.O. #7353
Ms Co Historical Society
For 4th quarter appropriation
$3,750.00-County General – appropriations-P.O. #7352
Axtell Ambulance
For 4th quarter appropriation
$9,600.00-County General – appropriations-P.O. #7351
Frankfort Ambulance
For 4th quarter appropriation
$13,200.00-County General – appropriations-P.O. #7350
Waterville Ambulance
For 4th quarter appropriations
$11,100.00-County General – appropriations-P.O. #7349 Ms County Soil Conservation District
For 4th quarter appropriations
$10,875.00-County General – appropriations-P.O. #7348
Ms County Research & Extension
For 5th distribution
$35,592.00-County General – appropriations-P.O. #7347
Ms County Fair Association
For 4th quarter appropriations
$7,500.00-County General – appropriations-P.O. #7346
Twin Valley Developmental Services
For 4th quarter appropriations
$13,750.00-County General – appropriations-P.O. #7345
Pawnee Mental Health, Manhattan, KS
For 4th quarter appropriations
$31,257.50-County General – appropriations-P.O. #7344Jon Ungerer moved, seconded by Fritz Blaske to approve vouchers as presented and issue manual warrants. Unanimous.
Commissioner Ungerer is working with the committee representing the Memorial Park Wall. Commissioner Bramhall encouraged the committee to come back to the Board with the plans and ask for some funding from the Special Parks & Recreation Fund.
Fritz Blaske moved, seconded by Jon Ungerer to approve the permanent change of office hours for certain offices in the County building and the Health Department. Unanimous. All hours are posted at the specific locations and also posted on the Marshall County website.
Keith Bramhall moved, seconded by Fritz Blaske to adjourn the meeting at 11:50 a.m. Unanimous. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on Monday, December 16, 2024 beginning at 8:30 a.m.
