Board of County Commissioners of Lincoln County

Agenda for May 29, 2008

9:00 Call to order and Pledge of Allegiance

9:05 County Assessor Estelle Thaller to present carpet samples and prices for replacement of the carpet in her office

9:15 Approve payroll and expense vouchers

1:15 Roy Murphy to request an exemption from Subdivision Regulations

1. Approve the minutes from the May 15^th and 28^th meetings

2. Review the April reports of revenues and expenditures for County General, Library, Landfill, E911, Road & Bridge and the individual road districts

3. Review the list of the Board of Directors for the Karval Fire Protection District

4. County Commissioners’ reports

5. County Administrator’s report

6. Old business

7. New business

The Board of Lincoln County Commissioners met at 9:00 a.m. on May 29, 2008. The following attended: Chairman Ted Lyons, Commissioners Steve Burgess and Gary Beedy, County Administrator Roxie Devers, and Clerk to the Board Corinne M. Lengel.

Chairman Lyons called the meeting to order and led the Pledge of Allegiance, and then County Assessor Estelle Thaller and Dan Hendricks met with the Board to discuss the carpeting in the Assessor’s office. Ms Thaller showed the Board several samples and told them that the one she had chosen was a mid-grade carpet, according to S & H Decorating, which is who she wants to purchase from. She was told that it would cost $14.25 per yard, but wanted the Board to know that the blueprints she had gotten the measurements from were incorrect. There are a total of 240.67 square yards, rather than 180 square yards, resulting in an increase of the original bid by $303.33.

Mr. Burgess made a motion to amend the original motion to purchase carpeting for the Assessor’s office by increasing the amount to $3,429.55. The carpeting will be purchased from S & H Decorating and there will be a total of 240.67 square yards purchased at $14.25 per yard. Mr. Beedy seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.

Mr. Burgess asked when Ms. Thaller intended to start the project, but Ms. Devers said that they would need to get the contracts signed first, and Mr. Kimble was working on them. Shawn Smith would also need to submit his insurance prior to them starting, since Mr. Hendricks would sub-contract under Shawn.

Ms. Thaller put in that she would like to get the carpet ordered, as it would take two weeks for it to come in, and that Gene Amann hoped to start painting on June 16.

The Board approved the May payroll and several expense vouchers for the month, and during that time Greg King with Farm Service Agency stopped by at Mr. Lyons’ request to give the Board an update on a couple of different issues.

First, Mr. King informed the Board that according to the U.S. Drought Monitor that came out on May 27, Lincoln County is considered abnormally dry at this time, but not severely, extremely or exceptionally dry.

Also, beginning June 2, CRP participants may request to voluntarily modify CRP contracts for critical feed use, such as haying or grazing. The modification is for 2008 only, and all forage use must be completed no later than November 10, 2008.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, prices for most field crops have advanced to record or near record levels in recent months, reflecting strong demand, tight supplies and competition for acres. The increased demand for commodities and resulting higher prices has impacted the livestock industry. Mr. King added that participants requesting to modify the CRP contact for critical feed use will be required to pay an administrative fee of $75.00, but no payment reduction will be assessed for any producer requesting such a contract change.

Mr. King also wanted the Board to be aware that the livestock compensation program ends in June.

Mr. Lyons asked for a correction to the May 15, 2008 meeting minutes: change Gary Teague to Cody Weber. Mr. Burgess made a motion to approve the minutes from the May 15, 2008 meeting, with the correction, and the minutes from the meeting held on May 28, 2008. Mr. Beedy seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.

The Board reviewed the April reports of revenues and expenditures for the County General, Landfill, Library and E-911 funds, as well as for the Road & Bridge department and the individual road districts. Also reviewed was a list of the Board of Directors for the Karval Fire Protection District.

During commissioner reports, Mr. Beedy reported that he attended the Colorado Work Allocation Committee meeting on May 21, adding that the formulas are staying the same. They will get a small amount of money from the mitigations that were held back, and those monies will be distributed according to the formula. On May 28, prior to the commissioner meeting, Mr. Beedy met with District Three Foreman David Seymour. Mr. Beedy also reported that he’d received an e-mail from the Division of Wildlife letting him know that they would be putting in the outhouse at Karval Lake sometime in July. He added that they would not need the county’s help in doing so.

Mr. Burgess reported that on May 19 he came to the courthouse to measure the parking lot, but then decided that he could look up the voucher from when it was sealed two years ago and use those measurements. He said the voucher showed they had put on 9,400 yards of seal coat and added that he would share the prices that he had obtained for slurry seal later in the meeting. On the Twentieth, he helped Roger Noakes with loading trucks for a chip-seal project they were working on, and on the Twenty-first he sent in the information regarding solar panels for the courthouse roof. On the Twenty-second, he toured roads in his district. Hilary Bledsoe contacted him regarding the fairgrounds; she felt a bigger area needed to be blocked off around the fire hydrant, as well as more signs posted regarding the curves on the road to the fairgrounds, especially for nighttime drivers.

Mr. Beedy spoke up and said he felt the entire parking area in the fairgrounds needs to be redone, particularly the diagonal drive by the Ellis Allen building. It gets very congested and confusing the way vehicles are parked in that area, and Mr. Beedy thought it would be better to add some gravel or designate parking areas somehow. Ideally, he would like to see the area by the building paved or blocked off for handicapped parking or designated for the superintendents.

Mr. Burgess thought they may need to get with Mike Mosher and go out and take a look to see what could be done.

Mr. Burgess finished his report by saying that he’d attended the Plains Medical Center board meeting and that things are looking better. He added that he’d also spoken with Mike Mosher regarding the dumpsters at the fairgrounds. Ms. Devers said that she had also spoken with him, and the $2,500.00 he has designated for trash removal is actually used for a number of things, including payment to Rob’s Septic Service. She felt that they may be able to afford at least one of the dumpsters out of that budget.

Mr. Lyons reported that he talked to Representative Cory Gardner about the issue with the hospital’s electrical problems, and on May 22 he attended the hospital board meeting. They called Cory Gardner while they were at the meeting and Cory explained everything that he had done so far. Mr. Lyons said that it is actually a federal mandate and, although he believes everything will work out, he said it looks like the hospital will have to comply with the regulations.

Mr. Lyons added that he’d also left another message for Jack Pfost regarding the property the county would like to sell to the Rains’, but still got no response. He did tell Mr. Pfost on the message that if he was not interested, the county would look for someone else to do the appraisal. On May 23, he talked with Shawn Smith about the courthouse windows, and on the Twenty-seventh he spoke with Penny Wilkins at Hedlund Abstract regarding county-owned property. She told him they would keep track of county-owned property when they came across it while doing title searches free of charge, but Mr. Lyons felt they should be compensated for their time. They agreed on twenty dollars per entry and she said she would submit anything they found at the end of each month.

Mr. Lyons received another phone call from Dorothy Cullen regarding a fire break around her father’s place, and he also called Mike Graybill with Union Pacific to discuss spraying the weeds on the railroad right-of-way. Mr. Graybill told him to call Jay Sutton, the gentleman with the company out of Oklahoma City that does the spraying, so Mr. Lyons called him, as well. Mr. Sutton told him to meet with his supervisor and they would go over it. Mr. Lyons gave the information to Wayne Shade, and felt like they would probably get it done.

Mr. Lyons called for the Administrator’s report, and Ms. Devers said that she’d been contacted by Patsy Hatfield in Social Services regarding increasing the credit limit on Andy Lorensen’s county credit card, since one of his duties is to visit children. The credit limit was increased from $500.00 to $1,000.00.

Mr. Burgess made a motion to sign two letters of support; one to the State Historical Fund and the other to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, regarding the grant applications for Roundhouse Preservation, Inc. Mr. Beedy seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.

Ms. Devers had received a phone call from a representative with the county’s Cafeteria Plan, who told her that the amount the county had submitted was quite a bit less than what the employees had been paid out so far. She said about $3,500.00, in addition to the regular monthly amount, would cover it, and it would most likely be made up again later in the year since most of the employees on the plan are liable to stay with the county. Mr. Beedy made a motion to send PayFlex an additional $3,500.00 to cover the loss on the cafeteria plan. Mr. Burgess seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.

At 1:15 p.m., Roy Murphy met with the Board to request an exemption from subdivision regulations. He said that he has two hundred acres, and since he and his wife can’t take care of that much property anymore, he would like to be able to sell a portion of it. However, his sister owns the house that belonged to his mother, and she will be moving here soon, so he would like to keep that portion for her. His thought was to build a shed of some sort behind the house so that he could house his fifth-wheel trailer there when he isn’t in Arizona. He would like to keep five-to-ten acres and sell the rest.

The Board agreed that it would not be a problem to grant the exemption, especially since there is already water, sewer, and electricity on the land, but informed Mr. Murphy that he would need to have a survey of the property done before they gave final approval and passed the resolution, as they would need the legal description. They also agreed that he should keep a minimum of ten acres.

Ms. Devers told Mr. Murphy that he would need to speak with Land Use Administrator Ken Morrison, as he would need a building permit for the shed, suggesting that he may want to do that prior to the survey of the property. Mr. Murphy said he would do so, then obtain the survey and return to the Board.

In regard to old business, Mr. Burgess submitted bids for slurry seal for the courthouse parking lot, stating that he had two quotes using 9,400 square yards. One was from A-1 Chip Seal in the amount of $23,500.00; the other was for $25,004.00 from Quality Resurfacing Company. The final quote was for a one-inch asphalt overlay from Black Gold Asphalt. That amount was $79,974.00. Mr. Burgess added that none of the quotes included striping, but the others agreed that Travis Nall would do that, anyway. Mr. Burgess said they would also need to do any patching themselves, adding that all three road districts would need to get involved so as not to put the entire burden on Chris Monks. He also said they should consider closing the courthouse for a day in order to get the project done all at once. It was determined that the first order of business would be to see if there was enough money in the budget to even consider the job. Mr. Beedy suggested chip-sealing the driveway portion out to the street and Ms. Devers said she would check the budget and let them know tomorrow.

Mr. Lyons said he had also been contacted by Hilary Bledsoe, who told him that there is a curve on the road going north out of Karval that should be posted with a sign. Mr. Beedy determined that it was probably on County Road 29 and said he would let David Seymour know.

Mr. Lyons also said that Mike Mosher had told him that the group hosting the Jr. High/High School rodeo event was very excited with the fairgrounds and had already booked it again for next year. He added that they had put in the fence posts for the new fence at the fairgrounds, but were still waiting for the correct wire. Mike told him he had some inmates from the jail working off their Useful Public Service hours doing some painting, and Mr. Lyons thought he would speak with Delayne Tornowski to see if they could spare some other UPS workers to help clean up at the landfill.

As for new business, Ms. Devers said she’d received a phone call from Dan Hendricks requesting the county send a check to Shawn Smith to pay for half of the materials and labor to begin work on carpeting the Assessor’s office.

Mr. Beedy and Mr. Burgess agreed with possibly paying for half of the materials, but not the labor and Mr. Lyons disagreed with sending any money until the job is completed. Ms. Devers will contact Mr. Hendricks and tell him the county will send no money unless Shawn Smith calls and requests it.

Mr. Burgess said that he had noticed the concrete in front of the sheriff’s office is disintegrating, and felt that it should be replaced. He spoke with Travis Nall about it, and Travis will look into how much it will cost to fix it.

Mr. Burgess also said that he had been considering the option of the county going to four-day, ten-hour day work-weeks in order to help with energy savings, and asked the others to think about it.

Elbert County Commissioner John Metli had contacted Ms. Devers regarding an e-mailed billing statement they received from Doris Houser-Williams, Chief Financial Officer for the 18^th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, for the Department of Corrections Bueno/Perez death penalty cases. Ms. Devers could not understand why she had not received the same e-mail, but later discovered it was due to the fact that Ms. Houser-Williams did not have her correct address.

The Board placed a phone call to Elbert County Commissioner Suzie Graeff asking for an explanation, and Ms. Graeff told them that the billing was for close to $300,000.00, and that they were questioning whether or not the Lincoln County board thought it was appropriate. Mr. Burgess said that was the rough estimate that he’d gotten from Sheriff Nestor regarding how much the case had cost, and Ms. Graeff said she would fax the statement. Once it arrived, the Board agreed that it was probably correct, so Ms. Devers called Ms. Graeff back and left her a message that they could go ahead and approve the billing.

Ms. Lengel said she had contacted Court Clerk Kim Graham earlier this morning to request the jury assembly room for the August 12 Primary election, and Ms. Graham told her they have a jury trial starting on August 11. Ms. Lengel wanted the Board to be aware that she may need to use their meeting room and the employee lounge as a polling place if the jury assembly room is unavailable. She added that it would then present a problem of where to put the counting board, since they usually use the commissioner’s meeting room, but she had considered closing her office for any business other than election business, which would open up other options of where to put the counting board. Ms. Devers offered the use of the Land Use/Administrator’s office, if needed.

With no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned until 9:00 a.m. on May 30, 2008.

_______________________________________ _______________________________

Corinne M. Lengel, Clerk to the Board Ted Lyons, Chairman