There are major workload changes in the Emergency Management Program that Worth County is a part of and which will create a greater burden on the county. For instance, instead of one exercise every four years, the county will have to do 3-5 per year depending on how you read the new regulations. Emergency Management Director Pat Kobbe said that in addition, there were all sorts of new courses that she had to take as well. She said that the changes were made retroactive to January 1st of this year and that they all had to be made by the end of 2011. The alternative is to lose the state portion of the funding for the Emergency Management Program and all the work that is currently being done by Ms. Kobbe would have to be done by the commissioners. Currently, the state funds $6,000 and the county and local cities fund another $6,000 for the program, which is part time. Kobbe said that she thought that the government was doing this to try and push counties to drop out. In addition, FEMA needed to know right away whether entities still wished to participate. The commission voted to continue participating in the program and Kobbe said that she would try it for a year and see how things would work out.
Kobbe said that she wanted to see if the county could get funding for a safe bunker for kids at school to take shelter in in the event of a tornado. The county had tried for it a few years ago without success.
Kobbe also asked the county about a policy for washed out bridges. Commissioners said that currently, the policy was to replace them with no load limit concrete decked bridges with steel. They would have a minimum width of 18 feet although they said they wanted to discuss extending it to 20 feet. Currently, there are bridges that are only 15 feet wide and have had to get the bannisters removed so that farm vehicles could get across.
Kobbe reported that the county was going to have Midwest Mobile do licensing stuff for emergency personnel for radio frequencies. Currently, she said that the present situation was a mess and she said that it was best for the people who are handling the 911 system's frequencies to handle the licensing needs.
Earl Schrock has repaired pipes and installed heat coils which would prevent water from freezing up and leaking into the County Clerk's vault. Schrock was also going to try and get the entryways fixed in time for the Sesquicentennial, but was having trouble finding the fake slate locally. If only one could be done, commissioners said that they wanted the west ones done since that was where most of the festivities were going to be held.
Another thing that needed to be done was to get the Windstream phone line moved underground. Commissioner Rob Ruckman was on the phone with Billy Bob Breeden of the company and that they would try and have it done by the 15th.
The county is about to get updated plat books which could come this week.
The county got a cost sharing request for road #227, which has gotten a brush letter. Jim Fletchall will take a look at the road before the county approves.
Record keeping has changed in just the past few years for the county. It used to be that it was all kept in huge binders for many years. However, more and more of it is being kept on computers, which raises the problem of how to access them in 50 years if present computers become obsolete. Floppy disks are now obsolete and most computers do not even have a place to put them in.
Jim Fletchall reported that a head wall for Road #228 would cost over $1,000; however, commissioners decided to go with the solution as they felt that other alternatives would be temporary solutions and would cost the county just as much money to do. Road #183 has a bad tube that is causing problems with the road and it needs ditching work as well.
The commission went into closed session at the request of Jim Fletchall to discuss personnel issues.
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