The second step would be to determine the area which is to be excluded. People from the village of Irena have expressed interest in being in the zone, so it would be the task of the board to determine which areas of the county were to be excluded. Pat Houts of the City of Denver delivered that city's letter of acceptance and all of the other cities in the county are on board. The third step would be to create a map showing the area to be excluded. The county would hire a GIS specialist to perform that task. The next step would be to write the application. The next step would be a public hearing; there would have to be 30 days notice and all of the taxing entities within the area would be notified by certified mail. Following the public hearing, the commissioners would pass a resolution approving the zone and then the application would be completed.
Austin reported that the city has begun the process of looking at their water lines and seeing which ones needed replacing as part of the Downtown Renovation Process. A meeting was held last night to present information about the project to the public.
Vernon Coy was present to request emergency rock for his road; he ordered 3" to 4" for a pothole on his road and 2" on the side.
Commissioner Ted Findley received a call from the Northwest Missouri Regional Council informing him they would be willing to help try to find a source for replacing the Sheriff's patrol car. The truck that the Sheriff's office has now is worn out.
Storage options were discussed for the county. It is getting to the point where personnel have to spend a long time digging for the appropriate records when needed. Among options discussed were putting in a storeroom in the attic, using the old men's room, and finding an offside location for them.
Road and Bridge Foreman Jim Fletchall said that he had made a trial run of the road south of Sheridan and that the county's gravel base standards had to be at least 450 tons per mile for roads to qualify for Special Rock funding. He said that one idea was that if someone were to put 225 tons per mile for two straight years, that would build up a sufficient gravel base for a road to handle special rock. But, "I think we need to rethink stuff; we can't be perfect on this the first time," said Fletchall. "We need to see what roads need to be taken off and what need to be put on." Clerk Roberta Owens said that one idea was looking at which roads were not traveled much; "They need to go where they are being used," she said. Commissioner Rob Ruckman said that he wanted to look at the type of traffic on a road, the kind of traffic, and a visual inspection. Fletchall said that he wanted to make up a list of roads that would be inspected to see if they needed to be on or off the program.
Fletchall said that they were still working on rebuilding the gate to the county barn. He said that he wanted to do one that was cheap, but that would keep people out.
Fletchall also asked for a seeder to replace land that was disturbed. He said he would check with MFA for quotes on a small seeder.
Presiding Commissioner Ted Findley left to go to a funeral.
The Servepro people came to the Courthouse to repair the vault to the County Clerk's office. The recent snowstorms had filled the vault with water and made it even worse by constant freezing and thawing. They were also going to work on Judge Miller's office. This is different than the work that Ameristern is doing on repairing smoke damage to the Courthouse. The county's insurance company had wanted to go with Servepro for that job as well, but the commission voted to go with Ameristern earlier, saying that they had offered to do more, including cleaning the carpets, and that they had offered a better deal.
Commissioners received a letter from Governor Jay Nixon talking about an initiative to get the state to 95% broadband by 2014. Currently, Grand River Mutual offers it, but for a high fee of around $40 per month; Commissioner Ruckman said that a lot of people were not going to go to that kind of expense but might possibly for $20 per month.
The commission decided to hold off on soliciting gravel bids. Ruckman said that there was a possibility that the US would release oil reserves, meaning that prices would go back down and the county would get a better deal for their gravel.
Commissioner Gabbert, who is on the MODOT Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC), worked on a list of lettered roads that he said needed to be fixed in the county. He was putting together a complete list of roads that they could go over. Among the roads that were placed on the list:
--Route Z;
--Route B, sections missing that are 4-6" deep;
--Route F, 10% of the road is gone;
--Route K, 5-10% of the road is gone;
--Route Y, lots of soft spots, dirt showing on roadway, 30% of the road in this condition;
--Route C, beginning to crack;
--Route H, scaling and rotting;
--Routes D & U, among the worst roads in the area;
--Route A, 50% of the road is gone;
--Route PP, 30% of the road is damaged;
--Route YY;
--Route O, 40-50% is gone;
--Route HH, scaling issues;
--Route T, unraveling, sinkholes, 10% of the road has soft spots.
Gabbert said that in addition, many of the roads in question lack a sufficient base. "This is what we're going to have until they change the funding formula so we can get better roads," said Gabbert. Ruckman said that it was a safety issue and that he knew of a lot of wrecks that were caused by the unsafe edges of these roads.
Worth County qualifies for FEMA relief for the recent snowstorms; the county will check around to see what kind of damage has been done. Fletchall said that he would sit with Emergency Management Director Pat Kobbe to get a list of what needed to be on the application. Ruckman said that he would sit with them and help update the list.
The county, after shopping around, decided to get a dozer, loader, and stump grinder from State Surplus; Surplus is still working on them but the county should have the dozer by this week. Ruckman said that once the county gets the stump grinder, it would be a good idea to take down the Chinese Elms in the Courtyard. The stump grinder could be used to help remove the stumps.
The bars on the southeast end of the Courthouse will be welded back on.
Commissioners decided to keep the generator portable instead of creating a permanent location for it even though a portable generator would mean a higher price tag for wiring it up. Commissioners said that they would want to service it and would want to think about upgrading it since it was old. Steve Combs put in a bid for $900 for a permanent connecting and $2700 for a portable connection. However, Ruckman said that putting up an enclosure and concrete wall would more than make up for the savings and that going portable would be cheaper in the long run. In addition, Ruckman said that if something were to go wrong with the current generator, they could grab another one quickly while they would have to find one that fit if they were to build a permanent enclosure for it.
Information about absentee voting for the county is up on the county website at worthcounty.us.
The county is moving an old register from Joel Miller's office so that they can put in a new heating system.
The county learned that the Courthouse is underinsured. Currently, it is insured for about $1 million; however, if something were to happen to the Courthouse and they would have to replace it, it would cost $150 per square foot, which would total up to $3.84 million. The insurance company suggested gradually raising the value on the insurance policy by 10% every year until it got closer to its actual value. It would cost $500,000 just for a steel shed similar to the one that the Fire Department is building at the site of the old school/City Hall building.
The Senior Citizens Tax Board has 2-3 openings for housecleaning services for elderly people. The board uses the funds to hire a person to do housecleaning services for elderly people in the area.
Clerk Roberta Owens said that there was a push for recycling grants; however, she said that in the past, nobody would take them because complying with the DNR and EPA regulations cost way beyond what was being offered. However, Reader's Digest did an article last summer about someone who had made a fortune recycling discarded items with the premise that everything was recyclable somehow.
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