Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Well, thank you for peppering last week. It was a nightmare. And the whole week's been that way trying to

write that down. All right. Is it better now? Oh, yeah. But we got a lot of debris. Yeah. I saw a couple things on Facebook, too. People were bragging about that. I said I think it was a cause for flooding or something. Well, we haven't had flooding for how many months? A year or whatever. And yeah, and so when the water comes up, guess what comes up here? All the crap that's been sitting there. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Well, we will start with pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay. Well, we'll start out with um commission review. Keith, do you want to start? Um, I didn't have any meetings this week. Um, we were busy with cattle, too. So, it's good thing not to have meetings. But, um, I just want to give a shout out to our church. They celebrated their 100th anniversary. So, who we had? Huh? Who? Emanuel the third church. Oh, okay.

And so, that this weekend was full of events. And so I didn't know all of them, but got to see well I had cousins from Florida and Texas and Georgia come back for it. Wow. So yeah, it was it was a good good deal. So that's all I've done other than thank you for covering for me last night.

Oh, no problem. It was too bad that hopefully you got everything taken care of. Um I didn't have any meetings last week that we were supposed to um have uh our regular monthly plane mental health meeting and I had um evidently it was a celebration. We didn't get the email nor Justin or myself. So it was a celebration that was the second time that happened that we didn't get the information. So anyway, um that I didn't have that meeting, but other than that, I couldn't see where I had any anything else. So it was kind of a flat week for me.

Well, I um Tuesday I went to Topeka. Um Michelle Ron received um the Order of the Sunflower Award that um was just created. actually Perry Wiggins and um Representative Butler put that together recognizing um the impact uh people uh have on our military communities and Michelle R was definitely um well deserving of that. So I was really happy to see that she got that and there was a good um turnout for that. And then we had a preliminary um tabletop exercise um for the the old DCC um compensating um it's looking we'll probably do that table exercise in um in August and then we also had a second um table cup exercise meeting and that included like um Gary just was there, fire chief, uh Troy, um those are the people that are going to be at the table when we um when we have that. So, we had that and then um I had it the RERC um u meeting um they're going to have the end of May, the 27th and 28th. Um they're having the workshop, so I hope you guys can make at least some of that. I know it's two days, so you might not be able to make all of it, but um but I think it's going to be really good. They're going to have people from um all the federal agencies, you know, um uh that are there's like seven agencies that are involved and and they're all going to be here. And then um

that's on the 27th. What are they workshop on the 28th? And that's so day two.

Yeah, it's for both of them. uh it's both days and so it it's just a workshop for you know anybody can go to the workshop but you know I'd really like to see a lot of the elected officials come um and then um I uh oh I went to the uh derby um fundraiser the Stormmont Bill um derby fundraiser for the cardiac unit and that was very well attended and very fun. We had was it was casino they had casino themed and then um they had you know like mint jubilees and and that kind of stuff there and um and it was very well attended so I was glad to see that. That's all. I would like to personally give a shout out to works for all the work they did after the flooding. Um, not once did I get a call or complaint.

Yeah, either. And there's one on Facebook and um was it somebody I sent it forwarded it to Jason or to Jeremy um you know about having you know wrote the water cross road and had some Yeah. Oh that was Harley road. Yeah. And that I know who that is. So, oh yeah, that

there was a lot of damage because we were trying to haul cattle and and so we were on a lot of those roads and and I didn't even bother with Jeremy cuz I I saw them working out there. But, um, in about 3 days they they pretty much had it taken care of. um in to talk that off. Our pastor's down south and u lo and behold the deputy and sheriff Beckman pulled up while we're getting ready to go in the gate. So, what are you doing out here? And he said, "Well, we're just kind of looking things over." And two days later, I saw another deputy go by. And so, I was glad to see them out checking things. So,

so yeah. Um, shout out to public works. So, I know you wanted us to wait on the um the hour state. Oh, yeah. Since Kathy and I were on the same page, we figured, but if you wanted to talk about that what your thoughts were on it because it's just I mean, we're giving it a child run, right? That's why Yeah. If it was something more permanent, then I wouldn't know. But I had uh I had personally researched it and talked to to Tammy and I'd been on the committee, so I kind of knew what was going on myself. So, um I felt like the

No, I think my my thing will be after the trial or through out the trial run what um the perception of the public is going to be. Well, and um I I think I was pretty adamant about making sure the the commission gets all the um all the uh survey results and we wanted to hear back and forth because that's what matters, right? And um um I think there was a couple department heads that wasn't happy about it. And I um and I think that some of that was shared during the um the meetings and and um you know again we have to do the best we can and I've thought with all the offices I I don't I say again I don't like the different hours um you know the you know but I I felt like going back and forth and looking at the timing it still would work with the different um you know different offices um with I think there was a 15minute variance on a couple of them.

Um, but you know, I, you know, give kudos to the offices to try to work it out the best they could with their their staffing. And we'll just have to see how see how it goes. But I think the earlier I like the earlier hours because I know down in the treasures office there would always, you know, at 8:00 you'd see cars always lined out here waiting till 8:30 to uh for that office to open. So I think that will accommodate those people. If anything else, I I would like to see that change to u opening a little bit earlier, but you know, it is his trial and you know, we did certainly didn't uh take uh you know, take it lightly and say we're just going to go for it. We just thought that, you know, under the

At least you guys thought it through. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I I felt like we did. and she had talked to uh the finance and Tammy you know with that capstone project I think you you've been in tune with it is it's not the first time that we had heard it certainly so but it's not permanent so that will work out we'll see if it works out I Mr. Petty, I haven't seen you around taking pictures for a while. You've been out of country.

Wow. Well, actually, I have for a while back, but yesterday, I'm sorry, Saturday. All over the place. Yeah. You know, I was trying to talk to you and you ignoring me, you know. I was looking for you. I saw Willie, but I was wondering where you were at. Then I saw pictures later. Yeah. You caught me in the background. Yeah. No, I I yelled at you one day and you were like or one time and you were like really concentrating. I was like, "Oh, I'll get with him." And then you were gone. The derby was spectacular. Oh man, it we we it was a good time and there was it was well attended and you know people some people were you know we wore crazy hats. Yeah, that was a pleasant surprise. Yeah. Did you wear a crazy hat?

Did you wear a hat? All I did was take pictures.

Out of town. Library thing was was well attended. It was nice. Good. And um the market place opening was really nice. Yeah. I didn't make it down there. I love going to that. I usually go all the time, but um looking forward to that. always get my eggs there and stuff. It's my granddaughter's last dance recital for the seasons until we get to Branson in June. So hopefully I'll have more weekends free that I can do for June. So I know people say there's nothing to do here in Illinois.

Oh, I Yeah, I know. Yes, it really is. Yeah. I didn't I wasn't sure. Do were you here for public comment or for the sale the tax sale? I was told that there was a meeting today to talk about chickens um on Milford Lake Road. Oh, okay. That's that's later on today or Yeah, it's going to be 11:45. 11:45,

not at the 10:00. 11. Well, the meeting started at 10, but but it's going to be at 10:45 is when we're going to have that discussion about there. So, if you want if you feel free to go and come back if you want or you can stay and listen to everything else. Okay. Um, I work at 12, so that it's going to be very difficult. And we have our agenda online. Um, and it'll and it explains what time we because we try to keep, you know, so people know what time to come so they're not coming and going. So,

okay. HR director Sorry, Crystal. I was here early enough. No, you're fine.

Crystal Malo's HR director. I don't have a whole lot to discuss this morning, so we'll make it short and sweet. I do have a number of out of office. We'll just start here. Last week, I did attend the monthly board meeting of the Kansas Association of Counties. The um deputy director position uh is still vacant. We've had a few applicants, but we are thinking still looking at the possibility of revising the position. It was initially created specifically for Jay's role and being the counselor and lobbyist, etc. So, we're looking at seeing if we still need it as broad as that. It's it's still in discussion. Um, we did have our uh vice president um of the organization is no longer employed in county field. we had to fill that position. If we filled that position with our secretary, then we had to fill that position. So, uh, a lot of it was spent filling filling positions, but we can get that all done. So, Sean Robertson is now our new vice president and Dickinson is our new secretary. Um so after the um legislative session and the vetoing of certain bills, we will be looking at trying to find a uh recommendation that we can make um uh to work with appraisers etc. Um so that next year we have a better idea of the impact situation. And that's about it. We did um remind uh each other of upcoming conferences. Kansas County Highway Association has their conference either this week or next week. The Kansas County Human Resource Association conference is June 4th. So those are always welcome or open to anyone that wants to attend. So and then this week I'm here all week. So if anybody's got any issues or questions or they want to come see us,

we're still working with interdep departmental things. And it is public sector uh appreciation week. So for everybody in the public sector, local, state, federal, I did post something on Facebook. So this is the opportunity we get to say um a lot of people just look at public sector workers as hey you take my money. But uh we we wouldn't have good streets and roads and law enforcement and health uh and all those things if we didn't help public sector. So for all those out there that go to work, no matter how many times somebody says, "I pay your salary," then you are appreciated. Any questions?

I'll just wait for themsel I forget since it's still my time. Um, I will meet and I'm hoping by this time next week you guys will have gone over your calendars, determined um what your schedules look like so we can start scheduling CBB director interviews. So I will make sure that you have all updated application list by the end of business today. So next Monday you will let me know who you like to interview and time schedule. We can get those scheduled later this month.

Does that sound good? We would maybe let you know by email the top three um and get that going correctly. That's perfectly fine. Let me know which availability is and which applica applicants you would like to interview. We'll get it scheduled. Thank you.

Good thing I looked at my notes. I knew I was foretting something. What day was um was May 4th? 14th. May 14th.

Yeah, they were on the 13th. because um I think this is good that we write this in or uh sign the form, but I mean I write them down because if the intent was if you you want to know when somebody's at the office if you don't write them down then how are you going to know next week if Troy's going to be gone the 14th? You know what I'm saying? So good point. It's the 14th and 15th probably needs to be put on a calendar. You got that one up there for you to add it real quick? I can add these. I'm just saying I usually jot them down, but

usually I don't want to bother people when they're on their time off, right? Um, you know, so I'm not going to be able to come in. I mean, I guess I could drive down here, but rather look on it on my drive down here. Look at the calendar. Okay. Well, you know, signing the form is good, but I mean, again, if the intent was just to know to for me when Travis or whoever emails and said just let you know, or is it okay if something's not going out? I send you guys a calendar invite for these dates and just put it as not busy, but that way it goes on your county calendar.

Yeah, that'll I'll start doing that from now on. Like I said, if that's because I've driven down here once to a couple times to talk to him, Troy or or Travis, and he hasn't been in here and and you know, he out to lunch or whatever, too. You know, you just hit the wrong time. So, I'll just start sending these after they're approved. Then when they're on their time off, either Yeah, sure. After they're acknowledged, I will uh go back to my desk and I will send out a calendar invite and it'll go accept it. It just goes on your calendar. It won't show busy or anything, but that way in your calendar that day, it'll say so and so out of office. Okay, I'll take care of that. Thanks, Christie.

Okay, counselors here. Good morning, Betsy. Good morning. Are you here just in time to do the county property?

Sure. Yeah. Um, I guess we're going to talk to Jeremy whenever um that across the street. Teresa and I were walking the other day and down the street and we were looking at that wondering how far that property goes that I would had also mentioned. I was going to ask Jeremy, I hope you don't tear that. stone building down. Hopefully you can make it into something. I said we should just put the EDC to fix it up. Put the EDC CB in the corner. Yeah. But uh we were looking

that's what historic Yeah. Yeah. She said something they thought they were going to tear it down, but I kind of hope they Well, that's what you said because they want to put up a equipment shed when once that property gets cleaned up and stuff. It'd be kind of nice to have a nice building cuz the stone um and stuff doesn't look bad on it, you know, like courthouse. That's weird how different that one's and that had that black stuff and Yeah. and whatever if it was from the roof or what that stuff is. Is it mold or what that gets on the stone? But that one looks pretty good. Yeah. There's an awful lot of that. We were talking about all that green stuff growing down on the side of all the those the buildings.

Yeah, there's a lot of volume.

Have to ask Jeremy about that one. you're ready. Um, council whenever I'm sorry to kind of rush you into getting situated there. Sorry.

No problem. Um, we uh the county received a a written offer from Dwayne Dia and his uh address is 115 East Elm and he made an offer of $1,000 on 125 East Elm. So, he's the neighboring property, pretty sure. Um, and uh,

we've offered this at tax sale. I think it was originally part of the 19 sale. We tried to sell it in the sealed bid sale and it was offered again at the tax sale. Um and uh he said that he has talked to the city um about if there's any outstanding lights and he was wonder he was uh offering $1,000 for that property. Um, in the sealed bid sale, the highest bid was um it did receive a bid of $100 from an unqualified bidder um who wouldn't have been eligible to purchase and that it received a $5 bid uh from a qualified bidder and the commission rejected it. Well, and I know it's been on this tax sale for a while. So, it's been off the tax rolls for a while and I'd like to see it back on the tax rolls.

Yeah. As well. Okay. Well, I make a motion that we accept that bid. I'll second. It's been moved and seconded to accept the bid for the county property on 125 East Down for a purchase price of $1,000. All those in favor? I motion carried. Okay. We have to set it for public hearing and do the publication like we did the other. Okay. But um we can I'll get with Mr. Dia and see. I think maybe the night meeting might work better for his schedule. Um, but I'll get So then people can come in and out bid him then.

No, it's just a a public hearing. I see. They can't come and not. So they can't make a counter offer. Okay. No. Well, and keep in mind in May the commissioners aren't having a night meeting per se because they're going their joint city county school meeting is on that same night. So, they just decided to have a regular day meeting, but then they'll have their joint meeting at 5 or 5:30, whatever time.

Okay. Well, I'll see. I I mean, when we did it with the lights, I think they didn't come and then we when we did the one on, she wanted to come and talk. So, I'll just see what he wants to do. it on. So, how long do you put it out for public notice in the paper?

Do you guys want me to run you a copy of the letter? I don't need money. Thank you. Did you get my voicemail? Uh, yeah. Oh, okay. That's fine.

Okay. Let me see. Oh, no. Bets isn't say I No, you did just this morning. No, I did not get that. So, I apologize for that. My phone I turned my phone off before I I get in here. said, "No, I'd gotten the one when didn't you send me one last week or whatever." I didn't say I thought I had a terrible stuff.

It was field and I saw I just was calling you that I was Yeah. So, watch them. My text will go through but not my other and I must have just went I had it off so I didn't My phone is still off or or watch is still off or in sleeping mode too. So, Is Mayb playing softball? She is. Yeah. Is Is she on the Diamonds team or something? Uhuh. Yeah. I seen a picture of their team and I thought that looked like her, but she looks so grown up. She didn't look like Little Mess anymore. They went over and played in Salena.

Salena. Okay. So, they did real well. Is that they keep playing until they lose two or how do they do that? Well, that was it was just a one-day uh tournament and so they played two cool play games in the morning and then it was just play until you lose. Um and they made it to the championship game but they didn't win so they got run around. That's good. They're low. It's an AU team, so it is fun to watch.

They're all very excited about everything. Oh, yeah. And they Yeah. And they scream and squeal a lot in that age. Oh, yeah. Well, it's really um competitive, but I know when my nephew played at that age, you know, when they get to turn, you know, the last game, they were all crying. So, you know, they take it pretty seriously. The boys do. That's over. Did you want to see if she's not going to be able to be here? I mean, just up to you. No, no, that's fine. I wasn't sure exactly.

I mean, we could I mean, just since she's going to have to leave Ma'am, um since uh you know the meeting or because like like uh Commissioner Jeron had mentioned earlier, you know, we have an agenda that we follow with different presenters on at certain times. That's why we've got somebody here at 10:45, which 15 minutes, but he won't be here, you know, until 10:45. That being said, um if you wanted if you had something to say, you're welcome to do that now. And um um because obviously if you have to uh he'll be here at 11:45 to do the the director will to do his presentation. So if you had something you wanted to say, you're certainly welcome to do that now so that you could go on with your day.

Okay. So someone else's um I can take someone else's time. Is that what you're saying? 10:45 is our next u our next person. So if you had something you wanted to say so you could go on with your day, you're welcome to do so. If you have if you have what if you want to tell us what you wanted to say at the hearing since I know you have to leave. We had a few minutes. So I asked the chairman if she minded if you would come up for a few minutes and just give us your your opinion if you had something to say. So come on up. State your name and your address.

Maria Adriana Burkowitz, 6210 Highway K18. Uh, our property is not at We're like um on K18, but our property is adjacent to the second I have pictures of it. Um, the second neighbor on North Milford Lake Road and then there's a corner house so that they are uh property is much smaller. Uh, in regards to the chickens, they have been coming to our pro onto our property um, since the year we moved in. And we moved in in April of 2022. Um I think it was like May, April or May when uh neighbor number from the corner number three uh invited us over to a gathering cuz neighbor number two that home had been empty for a good bit um that that we've been there. And we went over to the neighbor's house and that's when we found out that they're the ones that have some chickens and that's fine. um their chickens. We saw their chickens on our properties um July 17th, 2022. Since then, um there were a couple of times where we took uh a stray chicken. We thought, "Oh my gosh, they escaped. We don't know uh chicken activity." So, it's like, "Oh my gosh, we need to return it." So, I we took it back, my husband and I. Um and a young lady answered the door. The first time she grabbed it and just let it go. I'm like your your your chicken. She's like, "Oh, it's fine. It's fine. She'll go back." I'm like, "Okay." So, we went back. Um time later, it happened again. So, I was like, "Oh my god, the chicken again." So, we took it back and this time she's like, "Ju just let her go." And she kind of giggled at us. And the whole time we were like, "Oh my gosh, she must think city slickers. They don't know what chickens do and this and that, you know." So, we talked amongst each other like, "Yeah, they're laughing at us,

whatever." Um, and I have pictures where that neighbor number two home in the back of their detached garage, they never um mowed it. So, it's, you know, overgrown and stuff like that. Um, and then I think it was uh the year of 2023 when neighbor number two came in, moved in, and August 27th, we saw a uh loose goat. And I have pictures of it as well. And we're like, this is weird. Where'd that come from? Um, in September of 27, I have a video capture of a chicken coming up to our backyard, um, in around the fenced in area that we have in the back of our yard. Um, and that one time, uh, our dogs were outside in our fenced in backyard. So, uh, they reacted. It's like, what is that? What is that? And ever since uh April 1st, 2024, I have pictures of it here. That's when we started to see more activity of the chickens all over the big open area on our property and coming all the way up to behind our fenced in area. Um we have al I have also pictures of a white dog, a brown dog. There's just other dogs out there. So the last meeting I know some of the other neighbors had accused us of killing four of their chickens. That is not the case because there are other dogs loose. So why does it have to be just us? We don't know who exactly. Um I do have a picture of August 16th. Uh my dog did attack reacted and attacked one of the chickens that were on our property. Um on the 17th um we found it inside of our laundry room because I

went over on the 16th um the the morning of that um my dog attacked that chicken. I went over to the neighbor's house number two neighbor and I said, "I'm so sorry. My dog just killed one of your chickens." And his response was like, "Oh, it's fine. They were free." I'm like, "Oh, okay." So left it alone. But I told him, "Hey, can you come get it?" And he's like, "Why? It's on your property. It's dead on your property. I'm like, "Yeah, well, I had just gotten um shoulder surgery and so I couldn't really pick up anything." And I just, you know, sorry, recupants or something. Um he's like, "That's okay." But he did reluctantly come over and we looked and looked and looked for something and nowhere around our property, my property. Um but on the next morning, we found it inside of our laundry room, inside of our garage. So that was weird. and I have pictures of it. Um, it walked away. It just, you know, so my dog attacked it but didn't kill this one. Um, then a couple of weeks later, uh, we, you know, kept seeing chickens. I have others with veto capture. A couple of weeks later, um, the same thing happened. My dog escaped and did attack another of his chickens. And this time, I was yelling for my dog to come back, like recall him. And the neighbor number two, I saw him uh run back into his garage and then I ran inside to grab my keys, a leash or something to go get my dog. And at the by the time I got out, I saw the neighbor number two come onto my property um with something in his hand, which was a rifle. And he kept yelling at me, threatening that the next time he was going to kill my dog. And I just kept asking him, "Where's my dog? Where's my dog?" Because I didn't know if he had already shot him. I don't know, you know, but he's like, um, he's over there standing. And that's when I thought, okay, if he's standing, he's

still alive. Okay, got it. And ever since then, um, we don't bother to go over to their house to let them know, hey, your chickens are on our property again because we're not going to know if they're going to meet us with another rifle or another weapon or anything. So, we just keep calling the cops and say, hey, the neighbors chickens are on our property again. And I know at the last meeting they were wondering why we don't talk to our neighbors. Well, this is why because we don't know how they're going to meet us with another weapon or not. Um and even after that um August 21st, 2024, I have video capture here um with again chickens. We have like a little forest. I call it mini forest. A lot of trees in the back and shrubbery. Um there are chickens in there. They're on our property and we have um reinforced our fence to add two more feet to our fence line. And we even dug all the way around so to make sure that our dog doesn't dig through. We have pipe all the way around. Uh we expanded our fence another something like 16 feet. That's like two two lengths. Um 16 feet just to make it bigger for our dogs. And every time I uh take my dog my dogs anywhere, I have them tethered around my waist because the reason I have this is because my dog did yank me, but I never let go. That's a good thing. But um he tore my uh tenant and we have had issues like that with the neighbors and we're just trying to say you need to keep your chickens on your property. But I have more pictures that even after the meeting, even after they've been told, you know, they should keep them. Um there's they're still coming over to our property. Um the neighbor number two did start to put a fence between his property line and ours or rather the property line, but he didn't finish. I don't know what

happened there, but um the fence is laying there on the ground. Um I have a picture of that too here. Um, so then, um, they were saying that our dog attacked their French dogs, but they're Frenchies. Again, I have videotape on here. They're on our property up on our fence line, and my dog is sitting on the um stairwell here, and the dogs come all the way up to the our fence where like underneath where he's at um to the fence line. And um all three of them, there were four I think, but I saw three here. Um they come all the way up to there. And my dog didn't do anything, just sat there and they came up to it. And then as soon as one of the dogs was almost like below him, that's when my dog started to bark at them. But he didn't even get off the stairwell to the dirt to the corner of the fence or anything. He just stayed on the stairwell. So that's just to scare them away. Um they're after even after our last meeting April 14th um they use their ATV that's fine you know all the way up to our property line which our dogs of course react to the noise and stuff. I got it. Then April 26th have pictures of a white dog again coming onto our property. Um April 30th. Um chickens on our property. And then we don't know if it's related or how it's related or not, but somebody burned out in front of our house. I mean it's in the middle of nowhere. Um they did a burnout in front of our directly in front of our house. So, um I understand that chickens are going to be allowed to um live on properties less than 3 acres, but again, they need to be able to know how to contain them. Otherwise, you know, but yet we're the ones that are

the bad guys cuz of our dogs. Even though we've done everything we could to contain our dogs, but their animals are still basically at large. Those are the same one neighbor that um the chickens all belong to.

Well, the thing is the first time, neighbor number three, I know that he has chickens, turkeys, um peacocks. I thought I had seen ducks at one time and probably the goat. That's where it came from. Um, but one of the many times that the cops came over, they went to find out from law enforcement that they're not just one neighbor, but there are multiple neighbors that own all of these chickens. So, it goes to the point of are they, you know, claiming that it takes all of those neighbors properties to contain all of those chickens, then they can't contain them on one property. So, I don't know. We're kind of lost here.

Oh, well, I certainly um appreciate your concern and you know, you um you are where you are by choice and you know, when someone else, you know, especially that espe if your dogs are um you know, bothering your dogs or vice versa. that, you know, I you know, with this new proposal um that they're going to do um for the um these chickens, I agree that you know that they they probably need to be contained otherwise u you know it would be more acceptable for yourself. So yeah, we could certainly appreciate your concern and aggravation. So, um, did you have some, Commissioner?

No. Thank you for your time. Are you going to leave the pictures with us because I'd like to see them? Yeah. Um, if necessary, I can even put them all on like a little thumb drive to include the videos if you'd like. I can bring it with me though. Sorry. Well, if you want to just leave those for now if we need to see further, that would be fine. But you want to just leave that? Um, I do have a question. when or how do we know what kind of um enforcements there will be to keep them from I don't know how the question is that's something we're going to be discussing today. Okay. And and our um our videos are online on the YouTube our YouTube channel so you can watch it later and see what our discussion was about.

Okay. Yeah. You could just go to Gary County and look for the um commission website and look at the you know you could review the the information on there and see as well. But um um I don't know if the planning commission did they send something to all the property owners out there then to let them know what they ask Keith. I don't know or not Keith but um okay Troy for Okay. I'll I'll make a note to ask if something's sent. So you Yeah. The letter is if there's a letter of determination. Um then I would imagine that it'd be sent to all property owners. So

yeah, we we did get the letter in regards to that first meeting in April. Um I don't know if the results would also come to us because we're on K18, not on North Milford Road. But I'm writing that down for a question for him. be sent a letter. Also, I know that neighbor number two has a weapon rifle number three, I imagine, does too because they have um target practice there almost every Sunday. So, yeah, we don't I definitely don't feel safe going to talk to them about stuff anymore.

We'll bring up your concerns. Like I said, they're they're they're um well taken. I understand your concerns, but we'll we'll visit with them about it and then um share with them um what you've um has given and sent to us and we'll visit with them about that. Yeah. Just one last comment. Um, you would think that after 25 plus years army, I wouldn't be afraid of weapons, but this is my civilian life now. And yeah, I don't expect to be shot at out here, right? Yeah, certainly. Yeah. Um, who do I give this to? Thank you so much for listening.

Thank you. Mr. Burgess has arrived just in time for his 34. Yep.

Morning Gary. Good morning. Gary Burgess, Gary County Emergency Management Director and also rural fire chief. Uh start today by saying today is National Firefighter Day.

Um we put a deal on our uh website and out of the firefighters in Kansas, over I think 80% are volunteer firefighters. So we appreciate the work that they do not only locally but Clear Cross. And you'll see in my report why bio firefighters and especially the volunteers are very important to us. Um year to date so far we're 57 fires. Same time last year 43. Uh during the month of April we ran on 19 calls including one vehicle fire and 12 grass or wild fire wildland fires. Uh April 14th, we received a report of fire over along I7 over around the rest area. We got on same we they had three large grass fires going. Um we while we were in route, we requested assistance from uh Rob County Fire. Uh we got on scene, there was three large fires. We met up with the KZA prairie people because it was all on their property heading heading north and started along interstate. KZA has a little fire crew with their volunteers and stuff. They went and worked the west fire. Uh we took care of the central fire and then Riley County when they came in took care of the east fire. Uh glad to say that nothing of their main uh experiments that they do out there, they got million dollars of uh experiments going on out there, none of that was damaged or whatever. Uh we ended up burning 1,446 acres before we got that under control. We did have two task forces coming in. Dixon County task force immediately came

over towards it to try to assist us. Also, Shauna County sent their task force, but because of the coordination and we were able to get everything stopped. If you've never been out to KZA, they've got a lot of roads and fire bras in there and so we were able to use the roadways on that. We had requested assistance from the tanker 95. It had to be pre-staged down in Dodge City. It was going to be two and a half hours to get up here flying. And uh so they canled that and that's why they sent us the uh Shauna County task force. So real pleased with everybody. We spent about 5 hours out there fighting the fire and stuff and so we're real happy on that one. That was our large one. Uh received word last couple weeks ago our air packs should be shipped this week. This week or next week is the plan. Uh once we get them in, we'll go through and inventory them, get them out to the departments to Milford and Grand View. Uh still trying to figure out how we're going to mark them so they're readily identified with an ID number on them or something. They've got all got serial numbers, but it's hard to keep track. So, we're going to find some sort of a probably a 1 inch number or something on them so we can at a glance tell which bottles are which and so we keep inventory going on that. Who refills those?

Do what? Who refills those? When we do that, we got this Junction City's old

compressor down there sitting back there and we test that quarterly. Uh, one of our volunteers used to be a retired or retired city firefighter and he's qualified to do our quarterly testing on it and stuff. So, so we keep that up and running. Uh, good news on station four. Water line was moved. It was right along where the edge of the building's going to be. Real water last week. Move that further to the west or to the north about 3 feet. So, that will not interfere. Um, public works on Friday extended the cover so it'll go the entire length of what the building is out there at the roadway. Uh we did put signs up and comb that off so we don't have people parking up there anymore, especially when the construction starts and stuff. Um uh this week, hopefully this week, early part of next week, the electrical line will be moved because when the guys are digging, they don't want that electrical line overhead and it's going to interfere with the uh direction of the building. And uh Riley Construction says all the uh materials been ordered and stuff. So just soon as we get the line moved, they're looking at starting on the 18th of May. So two weeks they should be uh starting to go on that. Uh FEMA's back to work this week. I had a call on them this morning. Uh reference air packs. They called me on question and stuff, but uh so if I have questions and stuff, I'm still waiting to hear reimbursement on the 2022 grant so we can close that out. It's still in the in the queue as to what they told me today. Currently

working on five different grants for the fire department. Uh there are statewide grants or a couple national grants. So we're working on that. trying to get some additional equipment and or gear. We started uh and brought on board I think it's four new volunteers last week. Kurt's been working with them. So, um getting our numbers back up there and then uh tell you on Tuesday the 19th, our ladies auxiliary is going to be doing a fundraiser out at Freddy's from 4 to 8. Yeah, the 19th. So come out and get uh get supper out there from 4 to 8 and help support the fire department. So much of their proceeds will go to the ladies auxiliary from Freddy's.

You said 4 to 8.

4 to 8 is what it is. And we'll have a truck out of our guys out there showing off our truck. So, uh, for the EM side, uh, Wednesday, we've got our, uh, full scale exercise. It's going to be out by the 4H center. We're going to start out there about 8:00 in the morning. The actual drill will start about 9 and go from there to the hospital. It's going to be a tornado strike. We've got law enforcement, both sheriff's and police department uh are participating. Um and they're should have some good numbers participating either at the scene or because of their accreditation, they've got to keep uh all their people involved. So, they'll be doing notifications to their offduty personnel, simulating it if if it was something would happen to come in, that type of stuff. uh fire, EMS will be responding also on the hospital and our victims will be uh students from the uh health curriculum up at the school district. Got about 15 kids coming up on that. So, finishing up the the uh itinerary and everything for that. And then the last thing I've got, Sheriff Beckman and I did some talking. He was wanting to give up the command vehicle uh because when they've got something going on, they usually don't have people to go get it and stuff. So, I've agreed to uh store it at station 8. We've got electrical uh for shoreline so it stays charged, ready to go. Uh they're working on that today. I'm meeting with electricians as I leave here, but uh so that'll go under emergency management then and we're going to teach our volunteer firefighters out there how to drive that vehicle about four or five of them. So when we need it, I'll have somebody up there that can grab it and bring it

bring it to where we need it, whether it be the city or or out in the county. So it's been a busy month last month. This next month's going to be just as busy with everything going on with the building and then especially the air packs coming in because we'll probably we'll have about 400 pieces of equipment we'll have to inventory and that comes in on that grant. So tag them all and stuff. So

back to your exercise. Do you you said tornado, do you bring in the Red Cross? Do you work with them? Uh we do u they're part of our uh they're they they're on our emergency management team and go to our emergency management meetings. In fact, if something happens, they would come in. We do not have them play in this one, but that's one thing we we do practice and they come in once or twice a year and we sit down and talk about if something happens. and they've got person in fact now one of their area one of their state supervisors lives up in uh I think it's Riley or Wakefield area so we've got a good contact but so that's all we got

um you know honestly I was told them about the tabletop for the um exercise for the DCC grant um really you have probably have everything they needed already done. Probably because when they were saying that we were going to have, you know, have them reach out and get information on our our processes and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I just got to figure out how to get the uh they want they've got potto uh EOP. Yeah. And I'll I'll make sure they get access to ours because I can do like I do I told I told the girls I was like I said we probably have everything they already have already done. So

Yeah. Yeah. That's why I was trying to look watch all that on Friday to see what we've got to do. It doesn't look like anything really. Just give our information. I mean, but some people don't have as much as we have or not as prepared. So, yeah. And Pawi just redid theirs last year and I think ours ours is a year and a half, two years old. So,

yeah. So, so and then I think next week, yeah, next Tuesday, we're doing a uh deal on asbestous removal. We're handling asbestous and I've got it's a state uh webinar and we've got the city coming over with some personnel and also Jeremy and a couple of his people are coming over especially with the transfer station and then the recycling place on how to handle that and stuff at state level. So So we'll be busy. So okay that's all I've got today. Thank you.

Thank you. Hello.

I know. That girl, Jeremy, did any of your items I gave you come to fruition or did you? Uh yeah, I think it's gonna work out all right. Wait for interaction.

Yeah, you have to fill out a bunch of stuff.

Isn't that funny how that I was surprised one of these Oh, wow. 132.

I told you. Yeah. Well, you know, as I've said before, when we used to have them come every now and then sit in the hallway and they'll probably call the treasure because I've seen they've had some uh ads now and they say that it's never campaign time to do that. It's funny that it just starts showing up but they've been here a couple times and so after they come it kind of gives me a little spurt of energy and I thought them all day and I just kind of went down my list and wow we found several but I forget what I've done that night and I was just thinking I you know worked me county go back and forth some of them you know they're just like 20 but still you know for whatever they're less for some you know is is uh is whatever but Yeah, they hadn't talked to you. So,

yeah. No, I appreciate you. Thank you. Yeah. Go home. Yeah. Have a nice dinner or something.

Yeah. Did Kaitlin tell you about our proposal on that building down there, Jeremy? Yeah,

he's laughing. Why is it that some buildings like the courthouse had that black stuff and white mold on it and that one's really doesn't look horrible. Put some new windows and a roof on there. Yeah. A lot of it has to do with how the sun hits them. You know, like the courthouse that got a lot of sun like that kind of like you see there. Don't get a lot of sun on the face of it. Or else you could fix that and move your administrative offices over there instead of being upstairs in that. I've never been upstairs in your loft. We got a good office.

Yeah. Yeah. The only thing is it doesn't have windows, so you're you can't see outside or anything. And that's got a basement, too. I don't know if it does or not. Yeah, I said when get over there, we need to go in there and look in there. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I said even better yet, you could have his administrative offices over there. Oh, yeah. There's no windows though. No worries. Oh. Oh, you don't can't just see outside. You're kind of trapped in I don't think that would be a good idea having the administrator. Yeah, that' be nice. It'll tell us a lot once they actually get in there and see how everything looks. So,

well, you know, they're so separated. Oh, yeah. Away from each other. She's there. Jeremy, good exercise. It's kind of funny when anybody comes to my office. Yeah. Well, I know. I've been there. I've never been upstairs. Loft. Yeah. Okay. Well, everybody's back. Um, Jeremy and Kaylin, if you want to go ahead with your report, you welcome.

I always appreciate your information ahead of time. You know, that's nice to look at it and Yeah. Good. We try, right, Teresa? I was just going to say Kayn works pretty hard to try to get it on time. She's getting better. Some days where it just stop. Well, look at all the deadines you guys keep in mind over there. I know. Good morning, Commissioner. Jeremy Myers, public works administrator. Kayen Ross, administrative services manager.

Get this on this pulled up and get started. Okay. First thing this morning, we have a request to petition for a new entrance on Milford Lake Road. Um, this is located north of EasyJack Road, kind of down there in the bottom. Um, went out, looked at the looked at the area. They plan on building a house back to the west there eventually. Um, this would be for public works. There would be no tube required. We just have to build an entrance, dirt entrance, put some gravel on it for them. um they will need to put a tube back on the private but in inside of the rideway that there's no tube required on this one. So with that, I'd make a recommendation that commission approve of the request to petition for this one. So

second. Okay. It's been moved and seconded for the request and petition for a entrance for a entrance for a driveway on Milford Lake be a residential entrance. Yeah. Okay. Residential entrance entrance. All those in favor say I. I motion carried.

Uh next one we have another requested petition. Uh this is at 21713 Humble Creek Road out to Vista, Kansas. Uh this is as you see for an entrance. I'll walk up and point something out. We'll make a little more sense here. Um so this is where they propose to put a tube in and for an entrance. Currently, there is an entrance here, a soil entrance or a dirt entrance. There is no tube here. I went out and looked at the location. This is the drainage tube for the water that comes this way. So, it turns and goes under. Down here, we have another drainage structure that sees a lot of water that comes from the south traveling north. So, I would propose not to put a tube here just to leave that plug because my fear is if we send this water further down, we're going to have some more troubles. So, like I said, there's already an entrance there. It's worked to this point. There's no troubles that I've been aware of the years that I've been here or anything for. So,

are they put a house there, too? They are going to build a house there. Yeah. They've already built a shop up there. Which side of the road? Just so this would be on the south side. Yeah. Yeah. So with that, um I we're just going to propose to widen that to the 30 ft as as they've requested. Put some rock on it and just leave that plug in there like like it currently is. So is there much drainage there anyway or is it

There's quite a bit of water that comes from 13. I guess pole 13 coming west and then goes underneath the road there. So there was actually had the grass laid over when I was out there from that big rain we had. But I mean that shows me we did have a good rain and there was no issues with how currently is designed. So I would recommend commission approval of this one as well. So move

second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the request and petition for the widening of the entrance on Humble Creek Road. All those in favor? Thank you. Uh, next we have joint city county cleanup week update. I'll let Kaylin cover this one a little bit.

So, in total, um, the joint cleanup week brought in 19 loads of trash or 34.01 01 tons total. Um, city had 15 loads from their locations that were dumped and the county had four. So, this this is just kind of grand total overall cost of just um what was taken to the transfer station was $2,674. Broke it out by each location so we have it moving forward. Um if we are looking at doing this twice a year or just once a year, we kind of know which locations were the most popular this year. Um so there's just kind of the city's locations they had and totals there and then our two locations that we had and what it brought in.

What this um compared to last year? Do you have a

I do have that Betty. So um comparisons though from last year we had the vouchers as an option. I did not include that in the numbers for 2025 just so it's a straight comparison for um dumpsters that were brought in. And then also to remember 2026 we raised the um per ton price at the transfer station. So there's going to be a little bit of difference per ton. Um but there's comparisons from last year. So, city tonnage 29.19 versus this year of 26.49. County tonnage was 9.89 from 2025. This year 7.52. So,

and I do know that some people on the county use some of the because I saw him at the at the ATC that he was coming from and he was using it. So, it's not all from the city. Right. Right. Just more maybe city location. It was closer. Yeah. I think it was closer to where he lived than one of the ones we had in that town. Yeah. Little decline in overall tonnage. Yeah. From the first our cost for ham has gone up, right? Yeah. So that's why the Well, I mean you can see there's less tonnage. Yeah. But I mean not much. I I think that I mean I would say I would I would say that we continue to do these for a while.

Yeah. So, all we have to do to wrap it up is just um work with the city on they sent us they got their invoice this morning. So, um we'll compare ours, get the with the county, we'll have to pay ham included in the totals as well, make sure it's still an even 50/50 split, and then get our two um vendors paid and wrap it up and see how it does for the next time. Now, is there plans to do another one in the fall? At one point, I thought city manager had mentioned spring and fall.

Yeah, he he had mentioned doing another one this fall. So, we'll get with them, work with Chris with the city and kind of see what that may look like and some timelines of when that might take place. Will you be sharing this at our joint meeting? I sure will. Okay. Yep. has no wait a second. He I don't think Jeremy you're coming. Um are you gonna start coming to the Okay, good. So I didn't necessarily I didn't place him on the agenda, but he's sure as Zimmerman. I haven't seen what they have. Does he have One of his things is the city county cleanup. Okay.

Okay. And we're going to share this information with the city so they have it as well so they can I just didn't want you to be caught off guard. question. Yeah, you didn't have it with you. So, yeah. Okay.

Uh, next is the East Street update. Uh, we met with Wildcat Construction on that deal and they've offered compensation in the amount of $10,000 as part of the Hall Route agreement on East Street. U, it's not a tremendous amount of money. They they said that they had a lot of $10,000 uh for that. Um they were willing to either pay the county out the $10,000 or get with shillings and see what they could do work-wise for $10,000. Um I'm afraid that if if we go with the option of shillings doing something with it that they're going to put such a thin layer on there that it's not going to be conducive. It's just going to unravel pretty quick. Are we redoing East Street anyway?

We need to. Yes. I mean, is there a plan for that? Yes. Yes. I've run the numbers on it. U we're looking at for a 3-in overlay on East Street's about $66,000. So, when's the city doing their stuff? I don't know that yet. I did reach back out to Ray after I talked to Wildcat because remember he had some preliminary cost for a contractor to do that whole East Street. So I reached out to him kind of waiting for him to get back in touch. It might be cheaper for us and just have it all done when they do theirs. Right. Right. And I think that was the idea is to try to do it together.

So I would think that just the money. Yeah. That would be my suggestion and then put put it towards this project. Um I'm not anticipating. Yes. Well, and it it did it needed some work prior to um but you know as it went into a hall route, it was like you don't do much with it before it's going to be used as a hall route because it's just going to come undone. So Sure. So, when you talk about an overlay, are you talking milling overlay? It's going to need to be milled this time. Yeah, we got to get rid of some of that stuff that's down there because it's all kind of just working and potholes. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I think So, my recommendation would be to accept uh Wildcats $10,000 compensation for the road use agreement. Not that much, but don't need that much. I'll second. It's been moved and seconded to accept the compensation of $10,000 for the road use from Wildcat. All those in favor?

And I myself have been putting a a lot of thought into these road use agreements. And I think we need to do a little bit more homework upfront, have some sort of set offer made with this contractor so we don't get to the end and then we're trying to figure out where we're going to be. You know, I think that would be a lot smarter for us and as well as the contractor to know what they're going to be liable for at the end of the project rather than us trying to come up with something at the end. So, I'll be working on trying to do a little bit different process as we start doing these again in the future. soon you think we can get on this?

Well, I'm going to talk to Ray and kind of see what Ray's plans are with the city portion of that and how soon they want to do that and hopefully get the ball rolling pretty quick.

Uh, next we have Gary County Commission and Conference Room video and audio proposal. Uh, we received a proposal to upgrade the video and audio in the commission chambers as well as the conference room. Uh this first began as two individual projects. That would be the conference room in the commission chambers as two different comp uh projects. But in talking with the contractor, I thought, well, you know, maybe we can pull this together and get a little better price on all of it together, which did. There was not a lot, but $329 worth of discount. Basically, that's uh travel time for them if they did both projects at one time. Here,

Jeremy, with that, because I wasn't sure with this conference room audio um because the commission didn't propose or maybe before my time, but I guess I was surprised with where that came from.

So, the audio uh for the conference room come through Crystal and HR and Tammy, I believe, as well because they use that quite a bit. And the only thing for audio in there is the projector speaker. So when they do a presentation on that with a computer or something that it's not very good sound at all. You can't hardly hear it. So they had asked me here a month or so ago to reach out for a proposal on that. And being that we were working with this company, you know, on the commission chambers, I thought, well, we'll just try to pull them both together and and go that way. Yeah, I thought was that?

Yeah. No. So, in their proposal, we had a total cost of 20,529.97. The conference room at 181372 and that would be a facilities fund if we went forward with that. Um, commission room, we've talked with Courtney and she has thought that her uh technology fund for the clerk's office could probably handle that one. So, so before we spend that much money, I'd like to maybe have a presentation on how it works and how, you know, user friendly it is. Is this the same? Did you say this is what Riley County has current? They just put that

Well, Ready Systems is the ones that done the work for Riley County, city of Junction City. So, they've got some pretty good experience in setting these systems up. I know Courtney and Teresa maybe want to speak a little bit on the usability of the system because they were involved and and met with ready systems as well. Somebody has seen that.

Yeah. So what I like about um their proposal and he came in on two separate times and met with us and Jeremy and what we can do instead of going live like every you know every commission meeting we create the meeting. We sometimes are successful, sometimes we're not. We could um set it up in the future. So like I could go ahead and set up on my end like a month's worth of meetings. We turn on the system and it goes live. When you guys go into executive session um on the live feed, it'll say that you're out on executive session and that you'll resume and so we don't have to rebuild the stream again. It wouldn't be something that you all would have to handle. It would be something on the back end that we could put together. It would also then take that live and if we wanted to put it on a Facebook page, it would stream it to the Facebook page. It would stream it to YouTube if you wanted it to. It'll also back up your meetings since we do go back and watch them. Um, if you have a night meeting, you know, that night we would just schedule it for the evening instead of the morning. And um,

where would where would people go to watch the YouTube still? Okay. Yep. It'll just push it out to it. Um, all of this equipment would go away. There would be a microphone, I think you said, in the ceiling, right? um two cameras, one facing you guys and one and with the county counselor and the presenters and then one on the audience and there would be um some noise cancelling functions that are in there. So

if you have no noise going on in the hallway, you have to be so close to the mic for it to sensor to pick it up. So I think that that would be nice as well. Um, what else am I missing? Anything? Well, Jeremy talked about putting soundboards on the hallway. Yeah, we're we're looking at possible soundboard placement in the hallway. I' I've talked with a couple companies and they've recommended soundboard paneling. You know, they just they'll take that echo out of that room. They put some up, didn't they? Isn't there some? Not that I'm aware of. that we've talked about this for years because of the

So would it be would Teresa or whoever's doing the minutes uh be the one running the camera then or how do they do how do you do that? So basically um it's just a box. Yes, it's a box and we'll just set it up to turn it off. Oh, so you

at that time? Yep. at that time and it just turns it on and it goes live and it live streams you to wherever you want to broadcast it at. Um, another thing that I I asked him about was like day one we're going live on this new system. Can you be here to make sure like if we're having any connectivity issues that um he's here to help us resolve those? He said yes that he would be here like day one. There's also going to be test phases and training phases for us to get to play with the system um and feel comfortable with it before we do go live on day one of using it just to be sure. Um, it's not going to be managed by any of us that

not unless you really really wanted to. I really think most of the time it's not a commissioner wanted to do it. Well, but I mean if any I mean I I wouldn't want to have to pay another person to be in there to do it because I we can just turn it on.

This is just so much simpler that you don't have to go into the computer and all that. Now, there's some entities that have um what he called a controller, like where you have an IT person that's in there making sure that it's running like putting stuff on the slideshow for viewers at home to be able to see. Um we didn't really feel that that was necessary since our room is much smaller than some of those other rooms. If people really wanted to see what was on the screen, they just have to kind of zoom in a little bit. Um, so it would really just be a matter of, you know, whoever's taking the minutes, we turn it on. We're live. There's an executive session button. We click that. It It's what prompts the we're in executive session to go on the screen wherever they're watching it from. When you return, now you're back live. That executive session button will also mute your audio and there's no video of you in the room. Um,

so I really liked that option instead of having to rebuild the stream every single time every time. Yeah. Um, there is a monthly sub um or an annual subscription fee for that service and my tech fund can easily absorb that. And I think since the clerk is statutoily required to be the secretary of the board, I I mean you can agree or disagree, but I feel like that would align with being okay to use the tech fun. Is the system able to say the commission's budget would handle it as well if you didn't put it in your checkbook fun? Yeah.

Is the system able to um to have anything else like you know that we don't necessarily need but any anything as we get it and then say hey would be nice to also have this. Is it able to have the ability to to add stuff on? Yeah you can certainly build upon it. You can build upon this.

Good. Um, chairman, you had asked about the conference room and so and I know Jeremy pretty much answered your question, but just wanted to chime in on that. So, sometimes there's trainings in the conference room and so when there's trainings, it's really hard to hear. Uh, and we did that when we did um the software update. We had trainings in there and it was very difficult to hear on the computer. So that's really just the speaker system. We'll be using the projector that's already in there. And so

I didn't I hadn't heard anything. So that was I when I saw that in there, it's like I I hadn't I don't know if anybody else had heard anything. I hadn't heard of it and I didn't know if that we had problems that that needed to be that's why it was or this was extra just an enhancement more than anything. And and like Jeremy told you, it gave us a little a very small discount but still a discount by putting them together. But if for some reason you didn't want to approve the facility funds with that, I do have room in my budget and I would absorb that. The only thing is is it's not just my office that's going to be using it, which is why we were looking.

Yeah, I just hadn't seen it. I I didn't know if I just missed it or what if it was before my time. It had been talked about. It's already I asked about it. And it's under the 5,000 and so technically we can approve that without coming to commission. But because Jeremy made it a package deal, that's why you're seeing it at all. But in the conference room, it's strictly audio. There's no right because the projector is already in there. And so that's what Jeremy said. We don't need any of that kind of anything to see in there and it's compatible. I mean where there everything will work together.

Yeah. They can tie into the the current projector system and then add. So the speakers are going to come out of facilities fund and the rest come out of the tech fund. Is that how that's how we're proposing if commission would like to move forward with the package? Well if you're comfortable with the use of it I just didn't I didn't know if anybody had seen that and I'm like I'm not going to approve that without knowing how presentation

say something chairman. Um, just from an HR standpoint, I think we would use it a lot more for training if we did have the ability for the sound. We've tried it with lunch and learns uh with our UMB package for not um cars for our financial um and we have to bring in outside speakers that attach to the laptop and then you have to sit up close. So, this will allow us to offer even more training and let other departments use it for training if there was a way to tie in laptop outside source sound throughout the room. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's that's that sounds good to me. I just like I said, I hadn't seen this or anything. So, I that's just

So, will it pick up these screens for the public to see that's what he

It will. Yes, it will have the ability to tie on to these screens as well. And then those would be as you're looking at Facebook, it would or not Facebook but YouTube, it would basically break that screen down into blocks. And then this would this information would be in one. Whoever's speaking would be in one and then commission would be in one as well. That's what I liked about it is that, you know, I know Tammy puts a lot of information up on these that the public may have a lot of interest in. So, you know, having the ability to see that without actually being here in a meeting would be pretty nice, I think.

Yeah. And I make a motion that we go go forward with um the system and use the 181372 out of the series fund and 18 71625 out of the Clark's tech fund. Okay.

Second. It's been moved and seconded to use the funds um from the technology fund for the conference room total 18 for the 187 18,71625 for the technology fund and then the conference room total of 1081372 to come out of the facility funds. All those in favor? Motion carries. Okay. Yeah, that's good. Just thank you for your clarification on this. How many how many bids did you get or look at

on this one here? This is the Well, we had the other original one that came through that was super high. So on this one, I would say that we need to wave the purchasing policy on this to go with this contractor because it did not go out for bid. It's over $5,000. So, okay. So, we need a motion to wave the Yes. I I make that motion. Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded to wave the bid

propos the p purchase policy um on purchasing this equipment for the uh for the camera system. All those in favor and I will personally thank you for doing that though it's not impossible when it comes to technology. It's pretty tough to put bid packets together simply because each vendor deals with a separate electronics dealer and so you never get a good apples to apples. So on on some of these things it makes sense to to go ahead and wave that and I thank you for that. And this guy is really

gung-ho. I mean he really is easy to work with, easy to talk to. whatever. He reached out to us because he saw that Dwey made a story about the commission wanting to update their equipment. So, he actually reached out to us and I was like, and they're familiar with the building. They did do this box in the floor when we had that done. But, you know, of course, we were limited on what we could do because we still had the al and we had to have all these cords and everything. Getting all that cleaned up will be nice because I know it makes me nervous every time somebody walks through. Yeah. The wiring and the ceiling will be easy to do.

Yep. Yep. They can come up through there. The good thing is we do have a basement and all the access is available. So, it should work pretty good. Nice.

Uh next we have public works. Uh new hours proposed. I know with the new proposal of trying on the trial run for some hours and stuff. Um what we had proposed and public works would be following a slightly different time frame other than the other county departments. Um so we wanted to bring it up to ensure we were all on the same page. Historically we have always had our summer hours start Memorial Day and last until Labor Day. Uh so we would like to continue doing that. Um, for me, I look at that October 15th is kind of the date that I use to be ready for wintertime because when you get to October 15th, um, we could. So, you know, switching back in September for us makes sense that we're we're able whenever the snow flies because we we're not going to run the summer hours year round, of course. We're just going to go back to our regular winter hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. um for that. Uh this would include all staff. So it would include our administrative staff as well. Um I think that's important moralewise that they they get to get in on the trial period and not not excluded from it either. Um there would be some changes um in the HHW recycling in the landfill of that 7:30 to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. on Friday. Um though that recycling would be closed that half a day on Friday. It's important to know that there's still recycling opportunities available at the transfer station. We do have bins down there. So, anybody that, you know, strongly felt they still needed to do some recycling on that Friday would still have that opportunity, though they wouldn't be able to bring in uh HHW

products after after business hours. So, Kayen, do you have anything else to add to that? Um, don't think so. Transfer station will not change. So, they will still keep all of their hours, but um with the HHW and recycling stuff, we'll just make sure we add that to our um marketing stuff or wherever we share on JC Post and Facebook and um we've got some flyers already made to kind of um make sure to hand out to the public so everyone's aware of the change of hours. Um but we test it out and see how it goes.

Yeah, I think it's important to note it is a trial run. We've all said that many many times. So, we'll definitely gauge and feel how this works, you know, with the public and in our particular office. We do have a lot of other areas that we have to oversee. So, and we'll have those slips that Tammy has provided to all county departments. So, um any positive or negative feedback, we will make sure to record so that way she can include that with her data. Um but Yep. commission's input on that.

Oh, I appreciate you going through the effort of um trying to make it work. Of course, um you know, it seems seems like I think it looks it's a good schedule to me. Yeah, we'll see how it works. The road and bridge crew, they've always kind of liked that summer hours starting earlier. Yeah, as hard as it gets. Now, now they do gain an hour of work, you know, for the four days, but, you know, I think that Friday compensates that that they're off that half a day.

Though, it's not super conducive to operations, a half day on Friday because you can't really go out and start any projects on Fridays with that half day. I think it still does give us a good opportunity to maintain our facilities and our equipment and you know that's always much needed. We do currently do that PM day the last Friday of the month and we would just take that out and use those half days for that. Yeah, that's a good point on that because I um had said when we were going through this, you know, that 8:30, 11:30 or whatever for other offices and you don't really get um too much done, especially if you have traffic treasures office, you know, if traffic in the office, you're just getting started before you have to.

But um that's a that's a good idea to use those times that um you wouldn't normally get things done to use that for a more productive day and getting that. That's Yeah, cuz your normal work day we're we're usually hustle and bustle. We don't, you know, always have a lot of time to wash and and maintain equipment like we want to. So, this this would help in that manner quite a bit. That's a great idea. Other than that, that's all that we have today. One more. Oh, that's right.

Um, so we attended the um Kansas infrastructure hub summit last week. Um and just some of the key takeaways include um collaboration amongst counties. They gave some um examples of two counties um in the state that aren't neighboring counties, but they have gone together to work on a bridge grant project. Um and so they talked about kind of also the second bullet point of thinking outside the box for grants. like the federal government and the state, they want to see more than just we're applying for this one bridge to be replaced. They want to see bundled projects. They want to see counties working together. Um so we thought it was cool to see that two counties that weren't even they don't even touch they're not neighboring counties. They work together and they're getting like 39 bridges or something crazy done like that all in this one grant. So, um, that's something we're going to keep thinking about as we move forward. Um, same with thinking outside the box just for our stuff. If we had a grant application, you know, just doing more than one bridge, just as an example, or if we know of um, bunch of projects coming up that we can bundle all of the engineering studies together instead of doing one at a time. Um, it might make our grants look a little bit more put together than the other ones. um might make us a little bit more competitive that way. Um learn some new ways of how to get ready for grant readiness um pre and post award. So we have some powerpoints um with information that we'll be reviewing and making sure um if we need to implement anything that we do. And then another important takeaway was just having a good relationship with the hub. Um I did meet one of our TAs I think last year at a seminar but she has

since moved on. So we were able to meet our new um technical advisor with the hub for the Flint Hills region. Um so we are currently working with her on setting up a monthly meeting. Um just think it'd be good to say here's our ideas. What do you know is out there? Um what's the timelines on it? How can we apply? and just kind of trying to stay ahead of the game on some grants and um I think she would get more information to them first that she can help distribute. So, we're going to be meeting with her monthly and then just another um screenshot I took from one of the PowerPoints just to I know we announce this whenever we are not awarded um a grant or we are awarded a grant with how much was requested versus how much was awarded. So, um demand is still there. There's just not enough money um which isn't a surprise to anyone. But with that and thinking how we can get more creative, um, we just kind of wanted to go ahead and put it out there. Would commission be in favor of the idea of us potentially partnering with other counties for bundling projects together or um any other ideas you guys might have. But not that we're going to start anything today, but just maybe get the idea going of how we can bundle some projects together to hopefully get in that awarded column and not the requested column.

I do too and and actually that's I think the Pls Regional Council can help you with that because they know what other counties are needing as well. J would be a good way to hook up with especially the one example was, you know, they weren't even touching counties that were able to. Yeah. Yeah. And that's where that aspect of having that good relationship with TA over there because she knows other counties that are looking for similar grants like you would be and can tie them together. And as you know, it's it's a very competitive deal out there anymore for these grant dollars. So, however you can make yourself shine a little bit brighter than the other applicants.

And it doesn't have to be another county. I mean, it could be Milford City. Yeah. So, I think that's why it's good for you all to attend some of those conferences or summits that they have because you have the ability to build those relationships and know what's available. So um you know if anything else too I've always said you know just those uh lunch roundt discussions you always learn something from your peers too. So kudos to you guys for uh taking the initiative to attend. Yeah I never would have thought about reaching out to another county way out where to bundle some projects together but

it's possible now so we will get creative ourselves and see what we can do on our end. Jeremy, um, yes, I was going to ask you, you know, we had that issue or concern about, uh, road construction on 77. Um, where are they at now? Are they I haven't been out there for a minute. They're right around BJ's. Yeah, the BJ is working up towards like they said they're sending them. They got it closed and now they're sending them south. Is that right back up around or? Yeah, I can't speak for that. Like I said, I hadn't been out there for a few days. answer.

I've got to go to Wakefield here this afternoon, too. And that's why I was going to take the country road home. Yeah, I would. Don't take 77. Yeah. Which way? I didn't see Troy and you're take which way do you come to town then, Troy? Well, I usually come in 77, but this morning they had traffic backed up from BJ's clear up on top of the hill going in with Fort Riley. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, I cut through the golf course and came around across the dam and by the high school. Um, yeah, certainly take the back road. How much longer? Is that better? Or to go down Milford Lake to it goes all the way. You can go to Milford Lake or take 244 all the way out to kind of meander around

the back side. There you go. You take from Old Milford Road to BJ's. It's not all the way done right there either. So they still have a little there to finish and I forwarded to Jeremy over the weekend or that was Friday I guess it was that they had the concern which rightfully so I've heard from several people living in Milford that you know the wait time and then people getting angry and going around then trying to get back in that's dangerous because you know that's not always a straightaway on on that road but it seems like it's it's I would say if there are ways you can go around that area right now didn't do it just cuz yeah the traffic is backed up a lot

and I know the concerns have been shared with K dot and K dot is going to do some looking into it with the inspectors on that job as well so hopefully they can get some of that straightened out. Yeah is important to note that you know on these projects traffic can be held up to 15 minutes you know during normal or 20 minutes during harvest. So even for our projects out when we're working, I know it's not always favorable and we try to get traffic through just as soon as we can, but um we are allowed to hold up to those

25 minute wait and she said she can and there's like 66 vehicles she counted that was sitting there. That is, you know, it is aggravating if you got because I'm not a very patient person, but uh it is aggravating when you're waiting. You need to be somewhere. Well, you don't always compensate for that time because you didn't know you needed to. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Especially those that Yeah. don't know. There's a lot of traffic that comes from Fort Riley there. So, yeah, it is heavily traveled. Uh, by the way, yes, shout out to your crew for all the flood damage. Okay.

Yeah, we got on it pretty quick and got some things wrapped up. So, um, fortunately, there wasn't a ton of damage in the county. I know there's some information that came out um for some disaster stuff that Gary had sent over, but we didn't encounter a whole lot of those problems. It was just more some getting some things tidy back up. Berlin Berlin Hill Road then that was on Facebook. That was one of those areas that the water ran across and they traveled back. Unfortunately, we can't do much with the low water crossings until the water subsides. So, and you're not sitting out there waiting.

No. No. We've got a lot of things to take care of. Well, they always say that, you know, you get a bad rap for um, you know, that kind of stuff be put on Facebook, but then all the good things that you do, likewise, you never hear too much of that. We appreciate you guys. We'll definitely pass it down to the to the crew that you guys are happy with it. And thanks for always responding. you know that early morning what if Friday morning when I I have to I have to share Jeremy anytime anytime it's always good to have the information

I highly encourage anybody to call our office if they have any questions I know they they tend to like to reach out to the commissioners and stuff but we're always willing to answer the phone and and explain the best that we can I always thank people for their concern even sometimes it's aggravating but you to thank them because I always said you can't I can't I don't know about it. So, um yeah, I that's I never got one complaint. Good. Good. Yep. I will let the guys know. Yeah, guys and gals. Have a good day. You too.

I know it, right? Okay, since everybody's here today, I guess we're going to change. I figured you would. Yeah. Good morning, commissioners. Since Mr. Livingston is here and ready to go, lay. Yeah. The I was close to 30 minutes this morning. Wow. try to get here. So then I got fed up and took off and went through the

Right. So I'm going to have council read this while I'm talking and see if that's like it. They're going to do the executive session. Not right now. Okay. I can wait. I mean no fine. Yeah. I'm not in a hurry.

Okay. Very good. All right. Well, yeah, I know you guys have heard about this off and on from several people and I know there was young lady here earlier this morning to talk about this. So, at the end of the day, what this is though, all feelings and emotions aside is there were some folks out there that have chickens that are not in compliance with the zoning regulations. And that's what this was for. had a public hearing with the planning commission to determine if it would be in everybody's best interest to let them keep their chickens with the conditional use permit and that's what happened. So we did have the public hearing on the 14th of April and all parties were invited involved. Everyone was there had chance to speak and say their piece. Of course there were a lot of emotions on both sides. A lot of it didn't have really anything to do with chickens. Um more about property infringements I think. But all that being said, uh the planning commission did make a recommendation to approve the conditional use permit with the condition that all chickens, whoever owns the chickens have to be kept on their property. And that was a recommendation I made to the planning commission as well. Kansas does have laws to that effect about livestock running a muck and running at large. Um they don't like to see that happen. And I know there are laws on the books. I didn't read them thoroughly, but domestic poultry and domestic water foul are classified as livestock by the state of Kansas. Right? So when you've got livestock at large if it's on a neighbor's property, they are fully capable of taking possession of that until whatever damages have been paid by the owner of the livestock. Right. I would hope that chickens wouldn't cause a lot of problems, but you never know. And I know that there's been some

involvement with people's dogs on both sides of that fence. Um, again, Kansas is crystal clear when it comes to harassing and killing livestock. You're more than your right to shoot a dog. So, but that's not what this is about. This is just about staying in compliance with the zoning regulations. And our regulations say if you got less than three acres, you have to have conditional use permit to keep livestock, including chickens. This is specific to chickens because I don't want them keeping horses and cows and pigs and and goats out there. So, this was very specific to just chickens, and that's what the commission recommended approval of. So, what are the conditions of the use? I mean, is it

So, you can put whatever conditions you want. They recommended that they approve the the use permit with the condition that whoever has chickens, they whatever means necessary confine them to their respective properties. So, we're not requiring them to have a specific No, not not not any type of fence or a type of coupe or whatever. They just have to make sure that they are confined to their respective properties. And how do you do that? Yeah. Well, so you know, there are several things available. There are portable I guess portable is a good word. just coops that can be moved, you know, they're on wheels, but they keep them so you can move them around your yard, you know, so they don't get just grow in the hole.

Yeah. Right. So, there's there's several different things like that available. You can put um runs out there with netting over the top of them so they can't fly out. There's there's lots of things to do. So, I was wondering if Well, I think we should I mean, I if you live out in the county in the country, you should be able to have chickens. I

I agree, but I don't want you to infringe on your neighbor's rights. But they need to be contained at the yard. I I don't know if it's enough for us to approve that conditional without saying they have to have some sort of I don't want to say structure because that movable thing is not a structure. Not really. I think we need to say something because I mean people are saying, "Oh, I have a I have a little twoft fence." Well, it's going to go right over that.

Right. Well, and I will say and I know Bets has had a chance to read that. I did put that condition in there that they have to be kept in the yard. If they they stray, the sheriff's office, there are animal at large laws for the county that they can enforce. And if it's a habit, then we can revoke their condition use permit and they got to get rid of their animals. And if they don't, it's a $500 a day fine. My concern is it's not like a it's not like a chicken has a collar on that you know who it belongs to. So that's true. You got five chickens in your yard. You call the sheriff. Who are they going to write up? They chicken that is that. You're right. It's going to be tough when unless they've got very specific breeds. But it's going to be tough.

Well, I know my in-laws, they got chickens and but they got a coup. I mean, it's fly out. They can't do anything. Yeah. Well, you would I would think that they would want something for the protection. I mean, you got wolves out there. Yeah. And um we have a bobcat in town right in our back. Oh yeah, we got foxes and bobcats and coyotes in town. Yeah. So I mean it is what it is. They they wanted to stay in compliance with the with the zoning regulations in order to do that. county comm or the planning commission thought it was appropriate that if you live in county special they got all with the exception of one of those properties is two acres between two and three acres

and that three acre is pretty much an arbitrary number that was established when they adopted these regulations in 2011 u primarily was geared toward subdivisions like country meadows and cedar estates and those that are on pretty large lots u but that are in platted subdivisions And this is a development that was never platted. They just have house after house after house after house out there. And that's why we do now currently have subdivision regulations prevent that from happening. But um yeah, so that three acre thing was sort of arbitrary, but I I I personally don't have a problem with people having chickens out in the county as long as you take care of them, keep them on your property. Exactly.

Well, how about when you said this with the horses, pigs, and goats? Is there goats out there as well? I don't I've been out there. I haven't seen any goats. I've not seen any. I thought she had pictures of goats. I didn't see a picture of I was watching that, but like 2022 or 2023, I think. Oh, it was when that picture was, but travel and they can. True story. Oh, yeah. They move. Yeah. So, I mean, have peacocks. Yes, peacocks out there,

right? So, um, liv livestock includes domestic poultry, domestic water foul, um, oh, I'll never remember the names of them. Things like, um, ostrich, riz, right, as well as p foul. So, you know, we've got a gentleman down on Erikson Road that we had an issue with here several years ago that he was doing everything by the book and he had all of his his ducks in the road, so to speak, but he keeps peacocks and he has them all contained. They're they're not out ever and the neighbor that sold him the property finally got I don't know. He was upset with him and so he filed a complaint and we had to take it to planning commission and that it got ugly but he was able to keep his birds. This is just

This is just for chickens. This is just for chickens. Yeah, I I might make that very clear. This is just for chickens. It's not for turkeys. It's not for water foul. It's not for guineies. It's just for chickens. There's a goat. Well, I know. What's the date on it? 23. So, but I've in the times that I've been out there since, I've not seen any goats. Have seen chickens, but no goats. Yeah. Well, I know we um uh our neighbor the the neighbor came out and spoke earlier today and I know there's some people that also live in that area here. I don't know if they were wanting to speak or not.

That's up to you to let them do that. Um they spoke at the public hearing. So, but you're if you've got questions for them, yeah, by all means, there's two sides there still. There it is. actually three sides. Well, the my side, the right side always, but the planning commission did make a recommendation that you approve the There wasn't anything about what I the roosters then they go along with the chickens and they're roosters domestic poultry. I would rooster.

Well, you can put conditions on them however you want. big decision. I mean, those houses are I mean, they're good lot size lots, but they're two acres here at the rooster. You can, but I will put this out there. The houses across the road are on three and a half and four acre lots and you could hear a rooster from their side. No problem either. So,

well, like I said, you know, all those things you move out into the county to be able to have those things. So, I understand that side of it, but you know, on your side of it then, too, is when it it infringes on somebody else's um property or whatever. It sounds like this this guy has taken measures to contain his his dog and animals and things. And so, We built the fence. Oh, well the ones that you he had some fence that was he added. Is that not his fence?

We built the Yeah, we built a fence in between our property and his to keep his dog from coming over and killing our animals, which according to Kansas, if your dog attacks livestock, it's to be put down. So I don't know why his dog's still over. It's attacked my animals, attacked his, it's attacked the animals across the street. So he gets out, they get outfitted. So, we built a fence in between to stop it. So, all his pictures of that stuff are before we built the fence. Chickens can't get over there now. Well, I thought he said he put steel on the bottom of it so they couldn't dig out. How does the dog get out? Does he break out of the fence? He breaks out. He lets it out. Oh, he lets it out.

Yeah, they let it out to run out in the big area between our houses. We have We've put 300t of fence in between me and the neighbor to stop to block it. Are your guys' chickens in a pin or? Yeah, they haven't pinned this. Oh, okay. I will say that uh last week or the week before I was at a a meeting with public works. Uh deputy recorder was there and he said they've been called at least half a dozen times since the plan commission meeting on the 14th of April for the dog or the chickens? Both. Oh, for both. But all whose property is this one here? Can you see now?

I took it that that was they did that, you know. Yeah. So that chain link fence belongs to the the burkowits. there is a a a fence on the property line between their property and he he said on that one that he they put reinforcement on the bottom of it and on the top of it with that adding that two foot more of right so was that to let the chickens out or what kind does have a dog I don't know what kind it is okay what kind of dog is it it's German shepherd if I may but there's already Kansas state laws for livestock what's the need to create a city ordinance. Isn't Isn't this more of a civil issue between the neighbors?

This is why would you need to do a city ordinance for laws already in place? This is county ordinance. Yeah. Why would you need I don't understand because of the lot the size of your lot. That's why Well, it's different than living in town and as opposed to living outside. You know, if you notice to the the west and the south of us is all farmland. Yes. So, I mean, it's different than being in town and as opposed to being in the county. I don't think anybody is have any issue with having chickens. We just feel like there needs to be uh some because you have neighbors that are closer than the normal uh county resident. I feel that they have to have some protection as well.

Everyone out there has chickens except for one person. So, one person can dictate what everybody does out there. Seems a little unfair. We can dictate what everybody does out there. Correct. I think that's overreach. Well, you can think that all you want, sir, but I feel like we have to try to look to see what's best for everybody, not just one person or not just three people on one side of the road.

If the chickens were contained, again, too, I appreciate the fact that you're out there, you've moved out there, you want to have those uh chickens on your property. Um, you should be able to do that. But, you know, if on the other hand, I I as a person, you wouldn't like it if you didn't have chickens and you had a dog uh and and those so the chickens if they get out of your property or clothes running close along the fence or or else whatever that causes my dog to run to the fence line and barking like crazy and causing all kinds of havoc, I wouldn't like that. So I'm looking at it in that perspective and um you all should appreciate on the other side of it that too because like I said I if I've moved out there I moved out there because I wanted to have chickens or do whatever and that's appreciated but um so and sibling it it's too unfortunate you two all how many five or six people can't work it out to and I understand on the side of it too if you have one person that's just stonewall you know how do you reach an agreement with that and I so I understand that too. So it's kind of a hard hard thing but we're going to try to meet halfway to make

that was the stance of the planning commission. They're they're in favor of allowing to keep chickens but they need to keep them. I don't have a problem that many I feel if you live out in the country you should be able to do things that norm you know that we can't do in town but you also have to be respectful of other people and keeping your chickens on your property as well as your dogs is what needs to happen the same issue

Mr. you dealt with a year or ago with this and the same thing about years you've been here but then once people starting their ATVs and their loud noises infringing on the people that live there for years then you have to start having ordinances unfortunately that's true um if everybody could just you know Yeah well yeah unfortunately we just all can't get along but you know I I think They've curbed the issue with those that are were out in that rural military area with ATVs and loud noises for the time being anyway.

With the motocross bikes again, I love them. I don't motorbikes and all that other stuff. I don't like them at 8 or 9:00 at night, whatever. And I don't those Yeah, those dirt bikes are the dirt bike the dirt bikes are pretty loud, too. So So in that sense, I would say yeah, I don't mind the little things going on. But on the other hand, I don't want a motocross bike. And I think there's it's a fine distinction, but it's important to draw the difference between a zoning regulation and a law like that, a noise ordinance or uh livestock at large laws because those are statutes. Noise ordinance isn't. But um so

I mean, unfortunately, you have to do that. I mean, I live in town here, but you know, I've been having those cat issues that have cats with collars on it. keeps jumping inside my security fence and killing my uh rabbits and stuff. So, you know, again, if people would just do their due diligence and if we've got the ordinance and it's going to hold the uh chickens in side their properties and not infringe upon another, you know, then I think this will take care of that. And it's, you know, and and unfortunately, I like I said, I understand what this gentleman's saying for sure. Um, unfortunately it comes before the board and we have to make a decision, right? So,

well, I think the key is you got to keep your chickens on your property, period. And that was the sentiment of the planning commission and dogs. All All animals. Yes. Keep your stuff in your own yard. Well, it's just like you. I mean, yeah, I know it's unavoidable sometimes. Calves get out. A bull might break the fence, but you do everything you can to get it back. And you try, you know, you keep keep your fences up. Try to keep them in to the best of your ability. But

I know out on EasyJack Road or out there where Jameson's live, um, you know, we didn't necessarily they got it taken care of. The two neighbors worked it out, but she had to call the sheriff, but, you know, they had a cow that kept going over coming in her property. She wasn't happy about that. You know, they got resolved, but the cow, you know, I mean, because so there's issues, you know, that that happened. But um if if the dog is out and you guys call, if the sheriff's not citing them for having a dog out, if you don't have it on video, they don't care. Believe that you it was there. You can you the sheriff doesn't have to be the one. The deputies do not have to be the one to sign a complaint. You can sign a complaint.

She went down to file a complaint and they told her it was a civil matter and then she had to go to civil court. Story I went and I wasted 30 minutes of my time just to get a card of That's not correct. I'm just saying that's why there's animals. Yeah, there's nothing you can do about it. So, well, I I feel we should go forward with this conditional use permit and and send an email to the sheriff saying that because this is going to escalate to where it gets out. It's going to and and I hate to see that. I mean, obviously, we've got a sheriff's deputy that lives out there. Mhm. Yeah.

But I have heard I've heard now it's just personal conversation between a couple of sheriff's deputies and myself. But yeah, it's it's going to continue to get worse. They know they need to do their job. That's the issue. But yeah, I agree about it. Yep. Yep. Well, I think you you came up with probably the best case scenario. I mean, you know, keep them on your property. Yeah. Yeah. Bottom line.

Yeah. I mean, and that's that's the simple solution. Uh monitoring that and and making sure that happens. And like you said, if somebody's chickens get out, I'm not sure how you're going to identify who they belong to. Um Oh, no. We'll have to address that. I guess we can get callers for ever since we ever since we put the fence up, it has I have not seen the chickens over on the Brookowits property since we enacted the fence. They've also put up alarms. They have kept their dog inside. I haven't chicken hasn't got killed in like a year, maybe

maybe a little less, but so the chickens aren't roaming. We've we're trying our best to keep them on our property cuz Mr. Mr. Burgers has a problem with it. So there you go. Appreciate it. He should get rid of the chicken coop that's on his property, too. The original picture he showed you guys of chicken in his house. That chicken belonged to the people that owned that house before him. They had chickens. When they sold it, they just let the chickens go. So chickens were roaming the neighborhood. They weren't ours. They were the people. How long there? Two years. Two.

The chicken he said came into his house. That wasn't any of our chickens. That was a chicken that the people prior chicken. Yeah, I wondered. It's like what? Well, well, I will I will be sending an email to the sheriff and and letting him know that this needs to be addressed and that's their job is to address this so it does not escalate. Um, I will make a motion that we go with the conditional use per minute allowing the chickens. Okay. Yeah. And I think with that said, you know,

this just a box at any given time this can be changed back to what it was. Um, I'm sorry. I didn't I mean, he's saying it can be rescended. This can be res. Sure. Yeah, pretty much. Um, so I I'll second that motion. It's been moved and seconded to accept the proposal from the planning commission. All those in favor? Um, one last question. So, this is out of your hands now and it's in the sheriff's hands, right?

Well, yeah, sort of. Yeah, for the most part, unless unless they somebody doesn't willfully keeps their chickens roaming at large, then that's a violation of our But do they have formally ask for a conditional use permit? Yes. On each. Yes. So every all those neighbors have to just go and ask for that. We did it as a block, but it's going to apply to each property. Okay. All right. Okay. So, they don't have to do anything else now? No. No. So, once once we get this signed and everything is copacetic, I'll send them a letter indicating your approval and what the conditions are.

That was my next question. Um, is will a letter be sent to all of the property? They will. Yep. Okay. And that's how that always typically works is all the property owners within the notification area get notice of the public hearing and then whatever the resolution is, whatever the disposition of the case is, they get letters to that effect as well.

My leisure. Yes, ma'am. You need to add that to your job description. Chicken finger. I will say this. This is on a totally unrelated matter, but I had a phone call this morning from one of our local utility companies. Had read an article in the newspaper about the city's intent to put a moratorium on all things that are unwanted. and he was super concerned and wanted to call me this afternoon and and provide me some information that he felt would be useful uh for you guys to consider as we get ready to move forward. Travis Griffin with Flint Hills regional with Flint Hills Rural Electric. Okay.

So, I'll be talking with him. Uh he was particularly concerned about the data center moratorum. uh because data centers can include everything from one or two servers to multi-acre farms and he said those typically uh he he he didn't believe that those would ever be coming to a county the size of Gary County but that if you put a moratorium on data centers that's going to affect fiber optic and internet as well. So just wanted to have all the cards on the table. Uh at some point we you know we need to ask the planning commission to explore all those and can

they're aware of that. So and I and I'll offer this. You guys are I don't want to go over my time but uh you guys are sitting in a really unique spot and you've got way more power than you realize. uh because we don't have we don't have anything in our zoning regulations that provide that type of a use by right because we only have three districts and two of them are residential and one's a right so anytime anybody wants to do anything they have to get a conditional use permit which ultimately comes to you guys so we could have a company come in with the best intentions to want to do this and they're providing the land owner a million dollar benefit for this and this and this but if you don't think it's in the best interest of the county all you got to just say no

I know and that's why I told that's what I said I mean We already have a a security in place. Mr. Year out when he redid our zone regulations in 2011 did you guys a tremendous service by just making everything a conditional use permit because it ultimately puts the the onus on you guys to say yes or no. So well that'll be coming up. So that'll be your homework here in the that's they've already tasked me. So I'll hear what Travis has to say this afternoon and we can go. There was another gentleman that was at our conference um from Acre Strong and he was kind of on the other side of the coin, you know, and so you might Google that just he had some information um you know that was

Miss Edwards provided me with a couple of examples of mortoriums that have been passed within the last year, 18 months from some of the surrounding counties and even down in the southeast part of the state. Pop County is doing some stuff now. I think that was taken surprise deal that Cherokee County has put a moratorium on all those types of not the uses themselves but the use of their infrastructure their roads their infrastructure their electricity their on for anything until they can get a a zoning board established because they don't have any zoning at the moment but so they dropped the hammer on everybody you can't use our roads you can't use our water you can't use anything so

well it was simply brought um when we were visiting about it just to be put in place to give anybody a heads up to give us time. Yeah. Exactly. Right. And I'm I've had this disc discussion with Miss Edwards. I'm I'm certainly in favor of that. That's not a problem. But I just wanted to reiterate and let you guys know how much power you really have to do say no.

So, all right. Well, that's all I have. Well, I think um both sides of the party for the chicken issue are here and I just would like to say that the bottom line is be respectful of your neighbors. Keep your dog in your yard. Keep your chickens in your yard. This is ridiculous that we're that this is, you know, going back and forth, going back and forth. That's the bottom line. I agree. It's a waste of resources. See, I'm talking to my daughter my business. You are my business. That that is your business. That's enough. Well, if you don't have anything for me, I'll let you deal with that. Thanks.

Okay. Thank you, Troy. Appreciate that. Are we session?

That is enough. That is enough. We are having Don't you ever be respectful of other people. We are having a commission meeting. resolution.

Well, is are any of you here were going into we were going to do executive session that did anybody have public comment they would like to make to be limited to three or four minutes? No AI data centers please in Gary County. I don't I don't think AI dentisters will benefit us or anybody around us. I think the artificial intelligence that we already have on our phones should benefit everyone in a good way as a tool, not as a lifestyle.

I think it's going to be a wave that spreads across the country is going to be very bad for everybody. Um I think it's going to be like mass surveillance. I don't know. I just don't like it. I don't think it's going to be good for the environment or for the people. I think we have enough here in Gary County. I think there's other ways to bring in revenue to this the county. Maybe get some competition in here besides Ace and Walmart. I think we should bring more companies and manufacturing to Junction City. Really build our town up. Sure. And give our veterans a place to retire at. You know, everybody that comes here. I think it's a great place to raise a family. It just needs more opportunity for the people. I agree that. Can we state your name so she can have that for the minute? Uh Frank Schmidt. Thanks.

How do you spell? S C H M I T O U. Okay. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? So, I already told you guys last time I was here, my daughter hasn't been off my property in two years. I have the GPS data. Um I don't know why I had to repeat that. The other thing is, uh you got a packet of pictures there, I think. Yes. The most recent one. What's the date on that? I'll give you uh the 26th of last month. Yeah. whose dog was on whose property there.

Okay, we're not going to get into this. We have stated what we stated. We are done. This is this is a this is not a commission issue anymore. It's a sheriff issue. That's who you need to talk to. This is public comment. Well, then make your comment. I am. You're asking questions. Okay. Okay. So, the chickens and dogs and whatever else, they can't even keep people on their property. So all this is going on. What is the insurance or what is the plan to maintain the chickens on the in that area because I sent over already the Penn State chicken housing stuff and I is that going to be implemented?

I just answered your question. It is a sheriff issue. That's who you need to call. We have made it a sheriff is the sheriff is the one who's going to implement the Penn State chicken housing plan. No. The only the only thing that's been adopted sir is that they're allowed to have chickens and they need to be contained on their property. Yeah. And then the other I just want to talk about professionalism here. You allow someone to call me a pedophile when your rules say that I am supposed to be treated with respect and dignity here. That didn't just happen. I didn't hear anybody call you a pedophile. Okay. Well, I heard it. Well, we couldn't have. I mean, is he going to deny saying is he going to lie about saying it? You're going to ask him?

Okay. Okay, we're done, sir. Okay, thank you.

Okay, well, we will move on then. Um, is there a motion to go into executive session? Yes, I make a motion to go into executive session for 10 minutes for non-elected person. I just think I Yeah, it's just an update. And you want Crystal. Okay. She should be It's been moved and seconded to go into executive session with the counselor and HR director. All those in favor? Hi. Hi.