Commissioners - Regular Meeting

We have new cameras, so we're getting them situated. You're good to go. You're good to go. Little boss got littler.

Okay, well, welcome everyone. We'll start the day with the Pledge of Allegiance.

I 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.

At this point, we have our July new hires here, so I will ask you two to introduce yourselves to them, and then I will ask them to introduce themselves to you.

I'm Kathy Tremont, District 2. I'm going into my, this is my second year, I guess, so I was in the office in the building for years before that, but this is my first stint as commissioner.

Keith Asher, District 3, and this is my 10th year.

So welcome to the board. SHERIFF'S COMMITTEE, JILL. SAMANTHA BUEHLER, I WORK FOR COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS.

OKAY, SO THANKS VERY MUCH. WE'RE TURNING TO THE RACE DEPARTMENT.

JESSICA KANE, COUNTY CLERK'S OFFICE.

MELLO, THE TREASURER'S OFFICE.

And that is all new hires for July.

Good. Yeah, welcome on board.

Welcome, welcome.

That's it. Just wanted you guys to understand who is the ones up here making our decisions.

Thanks for the name.

We are missing one commissioner this morning.

Commissioner Giordano Thornburg. She's out today. District 1. Thanks very much. Remember to reach out if you've got any questions.

Good morning.

I'm Rose with the Gary County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and I am here today to request approval to sign the new master agreement with Datify pending the go-ahead for METC on it. They have moved to a new software system that lets them manage their contracts, invoicing, and renewals differently. Basically, in the past, every time we were signing anything in the updated term, they'd have to send the terms of service to us every single time. This allows them to just have it signed once, and then they don't have to keep resending it over and over again and get approvals for signing. I believe they're wanting to kind of review our existing contract in addition to this, since I'll be signing a new agreement with them. But that's just essentially all I need right now.

So maybe I missed it. I read through. There's a lot to read through. Have you run this by a counselor?

Yes. She's reviewed that, and I've requested the contract from Datify just so we can see it all and have a lay of the land there. So pending her seeing that as well. do is sign that and then I shouldn't have to request a signature each time.

What's the cost?

I do not know that at the moment. I'm waiting for the contract as well. I think that was a thing prior to me so I don't know the details of the contract and how much that is but that's our platform for being able to track visitors to or see our visitors that come.

And then my last question would be how valuable do you think this is?

I think it's extremely valuable in being able to see where our guests come from, where they're going while they're here. It gives us a lot of really great information about the places they visit. I know right now I am working with Hillary with Downify to add a few new clusters. That way we can see, for example, one of them is grocery and fuel and being able to track that as people are coming off of I-70 and seeing that impact there.

It would seem like it would be a valuable tool for you to be able to have that data and then be able to focus on wherever you're seeing most traffic or whatever. So, yes, I believe it's a good tool to have, and I don't have a problem with signing it if Commissioner Asher.

Yeah, I make a motion to sign the master agreement with Datify.

I'll second it. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carried.

Thank you very much.

You guys want to do your updates first or not?

Well, I was on vacation last week, so I didn't have too much.

I did do a Zoom meeting on Tuesday with the chamber again. Well, it wasn't with the chamber. Our working group met and kind of going over the structure again and ongoing agreements. We talked about when and if, you know, how soon we could get this structure in place for, you know, city and county to sign. I think we had some good discussion. I just want to keep moving forward and getting this done. So we met, you know, that was the Zoom meeting. Then on Friday, I went to the EDC advisory board meeting. Again, we did, the city did have a member that had applied for a position on the board, and that person was Steve Capizzi, and he was there on Friday. We did discuss a lot of the Chamber Chair did go over a lot of issues that are going on, that are being found through the CNR consulting with the audit firm thus far, and very concerning, I guess. I am very disappointed and surprised, I guess, in a sense. But nonetheless, again, it's a time that we need to discuss We also found that there's a lot of missing documents, so some of this is hard to piece the puzzle together, and I think there was a request to get back those documents, and I think it's still pending, but I know that there is some documents that they're wanting to get back. those anything like that doesn't belong to that individual it's supposed to stay with the entity and you know it was concerning to me that they they were taken so I think a lot of value to whomever is there was reinstated the umbrella of the chamber, but he was reinstated back. And so he is back where he came from. And again, I think all those working groups will continue to move forward. It's going to take some time, but we're trying to get those positions filled. As I said, we've got the two Jackie, the register dean, and Tammy on there.

And Tammy has served on the board.

So we've got a lot of good knowledge there that I think can help us move this forward. So we're just kind of treading water, I guess, just to get things done. But we're trying to do it in a cover all our bases. Hopefully we'll get it done sooner than later, but that's all I have.

Well, just to kind of follow up on that, there's a draft report that we got. It's just quite the revelation of how much has been going on and nobody tracked. Of course, this being my first year as a chamber, from the commission. Although I took, you know, rumors and speculation, but I mean, I don't think it, I'm just going to say I don't think it's this existing board's fault. I think in a lot of things that happened in the past with the other boards, I think you don't know what you don't know. And I think There were some things that took place recently that kind of got this all started. And it's very, very scary because there's a lot, there's just a lot in that report. Like say it's a draft and the attorneys are going to look it over now. lot of that that got published and I think it was left out was in my notes I wrote it down but that 1.2 million was from like 2020 to 2020 up till now that was the 1.2 million was like salary and other things that that she had spent without authorization from the Chamber. Well, memberships and travel, meals, there was just, when it all totaled up, you know, her salary was around $174,000 a year. So that didn't include all the outside stuff. So it just, like I say, it's a draft report. Our attorney and city's attorney and chamber's attorney, they're gonna all look through this and try and see, and plus see what can be done, you know, one, to get those documents back. Two, what's the liability on the previous So there's a lot of moving parts. It's very fluid right now. But with that said, I think the big thing for me is that when we restructure this, this might be a poor analogy, but, you know, when our forefathers wrote the Constitution, it has withstood the test of time, 250 years. I don't think we need to do a knee-jerk reaction just to have something in place. I think we need to make it so it's longstanding so that when we're all gone, there's still a blueprint to go by, a game plan, whatever you want to call it. So I think it needs to be well thought out. And what that is, I don't know. I don't have a perfect answer right now, but.

I think that my understanding of how we're doing Um, the structure isn't, um, actually that what is bad, it's just, it wasn't followed. And I think again, um, putting, um, people in place and, you know, that's the commission and city and county commission to be the overseers of it as well. And, and reporting and all of that, hopefully those, um, things that are put in place will be more of a, um, a checklist and hopefully everyone will learn by this, but the EDC isn't any different board than any other one. And for the things that have been done on that I don't know of any other board that that could have taken place without some huge repercussions. And so again, we just have to move on and learn and move forward. It's going to take some time. And I think it'll all be better because I think we've got good people working together and getting it resolved and getting it in a better place.

a lot of time out at the Erie County Fair last week. Some days were really fun. Towards the end, it was relatively nice. But it's always impressive to see the youth do what they do and give them open class. But for the most part, it was a good fair. And I got to judge a pint. I was the only judge. I said, so where's the other judges? And they said, you're it. And so it just so happened that the Army had a recruiting trailer out there. And there was soldiers there under a tent close there. And I said, hey, can I get some help from you guys to help me judge this?

And they said, oh, yeah, yeah. I said, well, I need it. Somebody did.

do the timer. So I gave them three minutes to eat their pie. And I think we had like five adults and four kids or six adults and three kids. Anyway, when it was all said and done, but this one little kid, I mean, he was sitting on the end of the table. And I mean, he just, when it started, he just buried his face in cream and everything.

And he'd look up, and he'd just laugh and giggle, and you could see his little eyelashes. He could barely see. But there was another adult that actually polished off most all his pie.

And, you know, you had to have your hands behind your back. And so I asked my group of soldiers, I said, well, what do you think?

I said, it's pretty obvious it's the one adult one.

And they said, yeah, but this little kid on the end, he said he's got to get something. And so we split it. So there was two winners.

That's nice. Really quick, can I, just because we're getting feedback on the new system. Keith, I can hear you very well when you project, but Kathy, I think because you talked with your head down, if you could project

It's, I know, it's just very, very hard to hear you.

Yeah. Okay.

For once, I can hear you. For once, it's not you.

Thank you.

And then I'll leave you alone.

Let us know what, you know, yeah. I give you a thumbs up. I'll tell you it's good, okay? All right, thank you. Okay. Crystal, HR director here for the weekly report.

Crystal Melchose, HR Director, Special Projects. I'm trying to project as well. I do have two out-of-office notifications. One of them is mine, a doctor's appointment.

And then Tammy's doing maybe okay to move that up so I don't have to drive from Wamego to Topeka to Junction City back to Wamego, which I appreciate very much.

I wanted to remind everyone that This Friday is the last day of the month, so those that are coming in to renew their tags should plan ahead, especially since Fridays, they're open by appointment only. So, any citizen out there that is planning on coming in this week to get their tags renewed needs to either come in for Friday or make sure they have an appointment on Friday before they come in. I have put a blast notice on our website, so anyone that goes to our website, that pops up and tells them that. It will automatically stop Friday afternoon, and then this happens again, I believe October, because October 30th is a Friday. So we'll do it again in October so that notice out that the last working day of the month is a Friday, and to remind them that if they do come in that day, it does have to be by appointment.

Have you all been getting the feedback that's been being turned in?

Tammy is compiling all the information that she's received on that.

I'd like to have the report just before we get to the end of the rope. And I'll tell her that. But I'm curious how it's going thus far. Because it's until the end of the year, right? Right.

So I will be out Thursday then, the morning, doctor's afternoon. I'll be working from home, but otherwise I will be here this week. As a reminder, I am an HR department of one today and tomorrow. Tiffany will be back Wednesday and Jennifer will be back on Thursday. So I'll be working on getting payroll started and everything to make sure we get paid. Speaking of that, this is the third paycheck of the month. So a reminder that there won't be any premiums for health insurance, dental, any of those types of things that we contribute to. So when people get their checks and it's higher than what they're used to, that is why. So it's the third paycheck. Normally that happens twice a year. It does happen three times this year. This is the second one. The third time will be in December. Finally, we had an issue last week with a couple of employees. one employee who had their identity, their email was hacked, and sent out an attachment that was not from him. And so we sent an email out to employees, department heads, et cetera, warning them about that. And then Kimberly at Emergency Management reached out and asked if it would be helpful to, in the future, also send out an Everbridge alert when that hits. So I thought that was a great idea, and I told her I liked that.

So if you guys are okay with that,

I don't know, nothing happened, I mean.

Not that we're aware of. My understanding is that they were able to isolate it and take care of it. It wasn't just that individual, though. There was two people from other agencies that we're affiliated with that were, I don't want to out them, but a couple of others, another county. So it's hit and miss throughout the state as to who was hit. So either one of us could have clicked on one of theirs or one of them could have clicked on one of ours. and spread that way, but my understanding is that it's being contained and that there hasn't been any danger from that exposure. And that's all I have, but Katie should be here any minute to do their update, so I will leave and come back when they're here.

I got one. You don't like that? What? Well, you got your letter opener.

Here.

Yeah. That's all I got here. It's cooler in here than it is outside.

Yeah, I mowed the other morning at 830 and I was a drenched rat. It was hot all day, 24 hours.

It's going to get better.

They said it was the hottest day there in Oklahoma thus far. Though it was different, though. I stayed in the water up to my chin.

Yeah.

I think Saturday would probably. Yesterday there was a breeze. Saturday, oh my God, there was no air movement whatsoever.

Did you get in it?

Yeah, I ripped it open. Okay. It ain't good either.

It was something.

Speaking of that, I got a letter, because I'm always the contact. This is from AUSA. So, It's about our membership dues. And if I'm reading correctly, for two members, this is Gary County Board of Commissioners, one-year community partnership, partner membership with two members. And it's $975, and we've always done it. And the due date is August 25th. So I would recommend, I guess, that we continue our membership. We've done it for I don't know how long.

A long time.

I think that, yeah, it's a good thing to get the information and be a member. I don't know at what point we talked about attending. I know I didn't feel like it was that big of an event. Well, it was a huge event. I just don't know if it benefited Gary County for me to attend, and it was pretty costly.

Keith, you went a couple of years. I went three years.

I was like, well, I've been here, done that. Obviously, we get the Army Magazine with that subscription, too.

Well, I think, you know, our MAC director attends, and they have those relationships and whatever. And support-wise, I think through our membership and I think getting updated through Rob as to anything we need. I think serves us well.

And maybe with the new structure, wherever that goes, maybe it'll be, I don't know, more valuable. That's probably about all I should say.

I believe in meeting with our legislators, I think is... very valuable, but you know, it's kind of hit and miss if you're able to do that. You know, someone else and so you're not getting that.

So it's just Well, with that, with that before I'll make a motion. Good morning. Is Trish here?

Okay.

You could go ahead and leave one on Trish's desk. Okay. It's back.

How are you guys today? Good.

It's cooler in here than it is outside.

just walking outside you just start sweating and i'm like holy man this is yeah possibly mid 80s rest of the week and rain on and off tuesday wednesday thursday i'm okay with that yeah all right well are you guys ready for us yes oh no sorry

Here sneak out of here.

So. I haven't been in city for a while.

Is there a lot of construction between here and there besides right around here?

Yeah, so it usually routes us to go the other way, but yeah, downtown to be good. Yeah, OK. I live in Lawrence. which will be really nice when that's done. They've got one way each way that's kind of dangerous.

I don't know. I think you just get so used to it. You don't even notice it anymore, you know. Kansas City doesn't have too much going on anymore. What I can think of.

Okay. That'll change for sure. Just a minute. I should know the court.

ready to get started okay perfect well I'm Courtney Picklemeyer and so we're just gonna go over this is a good six month review of how your plant is running so we do have some good news it's running a lot better than what it was running around this time last year So in 2025, you guys finished with a 91% loss ratio. So when we look at loss ratios, we look at what are you paying premium and what are you guys spending in medical and pharmacy to predict where that falls. So the carriers like you to run 75% and less. Realistically, it's really hard. to run that well nowadays, just because medical expenses and pharmacy prescriptions continuing to rise. So really 80%. So you guys are currently year to date running at 69%, which is still really well. So we will get your renewal. in September, so just about probably five weeks, six weeks from now. So they'll run the data probably all the way up to August. So we'll continue to monitor what July looks like in August. So with you guys being with Blue Cross for a long time of Kansas, they're going to weigh your renewal on three years. So the one thing that we have to consider is they're going to weigh last year the heaviest on your renewal versus this year. So 2024, they have in there 2025 and then 2026. So they're gonna use a rolling average where we look at it on a yearly as well. So since you guys did have a little bit higher of a loss ratio, the renewal could come in a little higher, but also one of the things that we're seeing this year is renewals where we're predicting them to come out from our actuarial standpoint the same as what the underwriters are considering because they're putting a lot more trend in there. And trend is just really high this year. So I don't know if you guys heard. And you guys probably saw this. We saw a lot higher renewals last year. You guys had a 9% last year. So that was actually one of the lower ones. We saw more like 50%, 40%, 30% renewals in the fully insured world. But you guys are still running really well, so that is a good thing. You guys are running very consistent in your medical claims and in your pharmacy claims.

And as you guys know, every year when we get you in the home, where we really shine and what we do well, is we take you out to market. So it's not with the intent to move you guys from Blue Cross. We're sending it out to UnitedHealthcare and Cigna, other carriers that don't have the same household names. But it's so that we can go back to Blue Cross, tell them our story, and really beat them up to get your renewal down as low as possible. So whenever we get a renewal, that's the starting point. And it's what we do behind the scenes to get that down to you guys. That's what we're paid to do.

And in some markets, you might see where other carriers will come in really aggressive, too, as well. And so we want to make sure that carriers are all coming in with around the same renewal as well, which will help us go to bat. But it might be one where it's like, hey, there's enough savings this year that you might want.

So we'll have a lot of options to go through during renewal. Yeah.

The next one is the look back at the high claimants from 2025. So you can see you guys had quite a few high claimants. So the ones that we really look at are any of the ones over 50,000. So you guys had quite a few. But the other thing is they were all kind of one and done with, you know, the first one was potentially a stroke. Um, you guys do have some higher pharmacy claims, so that's where we see the majority of your claims, but like a fracture, those are kind of looked at as one and done. Um, the cardiac arrhythmia that could be ongoing, I believe it's still a high claimant this year, but again, this is a rolling, um, high claims report from August. Um, or this is 2025, but when we look at the next one, it'll, it rolls in from August all the way through June. So, um, That fracture is still an inpatient facility. That usually tells us that it was probably some kind of surgery for a fracture, whatever that looks like. So again, still high, but some of those other ones you've seen really tell off. So you guys don't have nearly as many high claimants as you had during 2025. And a lot of these, there's a couple that are termed on here that are no So those won't affect going forward. The top claims incurred and paid. So again, we like to look at this because this tells us some predictability going into your renewal. So again, you guys only have one person that is $100,000 and greater, but the majority of your claims do fall within that $1,000 to $10,000 range. So that's good. You have 81 people. That's about 29% of your claims are being spent in that. So between 10 and 50, that's where 37% of your claims are being spent. So right now you guys have a range on how the claims dollars are being spent. But again, your loss ratio is still at 69%. So you're not spending more in premium than you are with what you're paying in claims. And this is medical and pharmacy together. And you have your top diagnosis for 2026. This is overall and then inpatient and outpatient. So the one that I like to highlight is on the left side, that preventative care. You guys have 136 members that are going for that preventative, which is 60,000, which that's a really high number. We like to see that because you can always catch things early if people are going and getting their preventative care done. So that is a very good sign that people are using that preventative care. It doesn't cost them to go get that preventative care. So again, inpatient, you can see where some of those claims are falling. But again, it's really not that high for inpatient. Your outpatient is a lot higher. But that's, again, you don't really have anything that is just blaringly obvious that it's ongoing.

Yeah, sometimes there can be certain prescriptions that just throw everything out of the water. And so it's good to see that there's none of those on there right now.

there a legislative change now with prescriptions?

Yes so the SB 20 and we didn't put anything in here on that and I apologize we should have but I think we've sent out a lot of communication about that so the legislation passed July 1st it is a dispensing fee of $10.50 on to prescriptions However, how that actually comes out is very convoluted and we, there is no specific formula that we can figure out. Um, it is going to affect all counties, cities, school districts, um, anybody that's not a reset, um, whether you're self-insured or fully insured, you are going to pay that dispensing fee. And it's only if you get your prescriptions filled in Kansas. So if you do mail order, You wouldn't pay the dispensing fee on that It's also Where the rebates fall? How much are the manufacturing's getting back? So I can personally say because he is impacted by this too and the ones that I've gotten filled I haven't seen it Increase my prescriptions yet. I think from talking to the carriers they're not even sure if the information is even getting relayed to the pharmacies yet because it happened really fast. So there's a lot of information that the carriers, you know, you think UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Blue Cross, Cigna, you know, all these people that have to get all these pharmacies that information. It's a lot of information from a logistics standpoint. I personally, this is just my opinion because again, we don't know how this is truly going to impact the plans. I don't think we'll probably see anything until maybe 2026 from a prescription standpoint. I know the communication that we've sent out to help relay is, hey, if you're impacted, use mail order. But again, some prescriptions may not be impacted because of the way the manufacturers pay behind the scenes and

it's just very there's a lot of layers so it's kind of intended to help out the small town pharmacies so that they wouldn't get taken over by the cvs's and the walgreens and because that's what was happening so it was it was meant for that for the most part but it's it's really it's just consumers paying more so right um i don't a lot of times the employee is going to pick up that additional charge not necessarily the plan so again we just don't know how that's going to shake out it could

Right now, Blue Cross of Kansas is not putting anything in their renewals. Now, could that change as we get closer to January 1st? It could, but as of last week when we talked to them because we're having calls regularly with the carriers, they are not putting anything in their renewals as of yet or how they're underwriting. Again, there's a lot of layers to it. Unfortunately, the syphilis way would be like, hey, if you're paying $3 now, you're going to pay $13.50, which that could happen on some prescriptions. But again, there's so many layers behind it. We don't truly know the impact. The next page is your top 25 drugs of 2026. So a lot of diabetics on there. The Fourth one down that, I don't even know how to say that, Orgavex, is to help with cancer treatments. So it could be, you know, pre-preventative. But again, you're not, we're seeing one fill on that so far, or one member, and it's $12,000, which is outrageous. So most of yours are really diabetic therapy drugs. that we're seeing the highest on those. But 88% of your prescriptions are filled with generics. So there's about five specialties. It is down significantly from where you guys were at in 2025, which you guys had 12 on there. So that is good. And then this is the next one we like to share with you guys, the plan paid versus what the members are paying. So the plan is still paying 80% percent of the cost. The member share is about 16 percent. If you look at that overall, you know, you can see what your allowed charges are, how much you're saving with those discounts through Blue Cross. The plan, this is again from August until June, has paid about $1.3 million. But overall, the members are paying very of their pocket so i think that is always powerful because i know sometimes we hear you always hear the people that are upset with their insurance it didn't cover this you know it might not have covered this but in reality the data is saying the plan is paying up you know for the majority so And then the last page in here is just if you guys were self-insured versus fully insured. This is, you know, predictive modeling. It's not going to be perfect. But with how you're running today, if you were self-funded, you actually would be paying more, a little bit more in claims than being fully insured. So right now, you guys are paying less at that 69% loss ratio. If you were self-insured, you would be paying a little bit higher. You'd have your fixed cost, and then you would also be paying those claims. So since you have lower claims, you guys would just be paying a lot more in claims, where right now the insurance company, you guys are kind of beating the insurance company for a lack of.

And I think another big reason for that is your pharmacy is pretty in check. You guys don't have any crazy Super Bowl commercial drugs on your plan because that's when this definitely looks more advantageous because you guys can get rebates for those big dollar drugs. So if you guys did have some big prescriptions on there, this would definitely look a little different.

We'll probably start going to market in August. Yeah, next week. Just to get ahead, you guys look very marketable this year, and you guys have in the past as well, but I think there's a lot of different options out there, too, to maybe look at things differently and see if anything, you know, what we can show you.

So, any questions?

I'm glad you provided the last page on the self-defense. self-insured versus fully insured, because I think there's comments sometime, you know, that so-and-so is doing better. They went self-insured, and, you know, I heard that could be disastrous.

It can be.

You know, if the conditions were right. So, you know, I think that I appreciate you all doing your due diligence, and I think this is a, I think we did good this year, and I don't know. I hope our prediction for next year comes out good. Comes out good, better than what I've heard from some of the other entities here with school district and city and stuff. The costs, they're just astronomical. And then when you put that with other, you know, raises and everything else, it's just as.

Yeah. We're hopeful for a good renewal for you guys, so. Yeah.

I mean, self-insured can look great. for companies. You know, I mean, we can always look at it. That's kind of why we do the predictive modeling. Does it make sense? And usually when you're running well, it could be, you could be very, your fixed costs looks a lot different, but, and there could be some potential savings there, but is there enough savings where you wouldn't have to change your contributions at all and you can put money into a reserve? And so that's kind of why we do that predictive modeling, too, because even though you would be spending more today, if you were self-insured, you'd still have to be charging up a little bit more to have that reserve.

Because you have to accommodate for the potential bad years, and we don't know what's going to happen in year one that you make the change.

There's a lot of other ways to look at, instead of just being fully insured or going straight to self-insured, there's companies out there that, now that we do a level of funded, and so what that means is they, you're still written on self-insured paper, you're getting those rebates, or there's cost containment solutions in those plans to really help mitigate the cost, especially on cancer. claims, right? Because claims are claims. You can't really do anything about the large claimants, but where can we get the low-hanging fruit? And then you might get a surplus, and so it's less scary. You don't have to budget to that self-insured. So a lot of companies are looking at that, or there's captives, which is, you know, you're risk pooling with like-minded companies to make sure that that risk is shared. So, yeah.

So when you start in August and finalize your, you know, you pick, okay, this is the one we recommend.

When does that happen? So you guys are on an early renewal date with Blue Cross, which in a perfect world, that would be September 1st, the Blue Cross census year renewal. In the past couple of years, it's been delayed a little bit by a few weeks. But what's nice is by the time we get your renewal in hand, we will have everything on our end done for our marketing exercises. So it'll be going back to Blue Cross the day we receive it saying, well, UnitedHealthcare is 10% below this. You guys need to come down. With all that being said, I would say mid to late September is when we would have our finalized, potentially sooner. It's just we're really at the mercy whenever Blue Cross gives that to us.

The training day is September 21st, and we're really hoping to at least be able to announce then the rates.

If we can. Yeah.

Do you have any other questions?

No.

Yeah, if you guys ever have any questions, please feel free to get with Crystal and ask and answer anything we can.

Thank you so much. Yep, you're welcome. Thank you. We have a.

which you should have got a copy of the mutual aid agreement between us and Fort Riley to get a new garrison commander. We go back and we re-sign that stuff.

That's one of my questions. I know we've had that, so this is not necessarily has changed. It's just because of the new one.

The new one.

And Captain or Chief Hill from Fort Riley had to change the format around a little bit, but everything says the same thing that the previous ones have. We've been doing this prior to me taking over under Bill Dempich. We did it every three years and stuff. There's no changes. And it just says if we need help and they're available, they'll come help us. If they need help, we'll go help them and stuff.

Because the last paragraph there, it says it will remain in force until canceled by mutual aid and whatever. So it says to me it's a forever agreement. But we don't want to I think anytime we look at agreements anymore we want to make sure there's a review of agreements periodically and I think that's being done even with the change of command and different people having to sign so yeah that was this question I had yeah yeah this is their standard form they're the ones coming out every time and like I said every two to three years whenever there's a change of change of leadership we go back through it and

Chief Hill might meet and make sure we still want to do it and stuff, which of course we do because they really help us out a lot and we help them out, especially out in the rural area.

There was a couple times this past year, didn't both ways that you helped them and didn't have it. Went towards them and they went towards us. That's a couple years. Good thing to have, certainly.

So I'll go ahead and recommend that we do sign the mutual aid agreement with the O'Reilly Fire Department.

I so move.

Second. I second thing is Mr. Tremont you should have received an e-mail first think reference ISO rating is you and me on the 21st last Tuesday. What this is your number back in February ISO came in and did us injunction city both fire ratings, they looked at dispatch, they looked at our response time, our training, and all that. It's supposed to be every five years. Last time they did it was over 10 years ago. When they did it, we went from an 8-9 down to a 3. The lower the number, the better off you are. Junction City was at a 3 back then. We were kind of surprised we went to a 3 because we don't have the capability they do. This was their, what they said. This time when they did, the letter says that we will move to a six. We're waiting to see what that means. I think that's probably where we should be. That's where several other rural departments are, because it takes in the capital water supply. We know we don't have hydrants out there. We're trying to get more tankers training with our guys. What this letter says, If we want to work with them and try to improve our rating, we need to send them a letter within the next 30 days. And once they receive that letter, they'll work with us and give us a year to try to bring that up with training or whatever. But they'll be working with us one-on-one to see where we can improve. I don't expect us to get back down to three, but I expect you can't talk to them unless you have that letter. It says if I call them today and we don't have the letter, we can't go for this retrogression that they're talking about. So I'm going to go ahead and reapply for that, but I just wanted to make sure. I have an email. How do you spell that? July 21st, Tuesday, went out at 5.01 in the morning from PC Retrogression. I'll provide you a copy of it. but the companies Versic, V-E-R-I-S-K, the ones that rate the insurance companies or say here's what the insurance ratings are. There's several insurance companies that don't use this. They use their own formula, especially some of the ones that write a lot of rule policies. I think Upland Mutual is one of them, or Marysville Mutual, I think. just so you're aware of that in case anybody says anything you'll know what's going on so with our upgraded fire stations and adding on up here that didn't play into account that will um now that before with the last time that was done we didn't have a class a pumper sitting there to fight structure fires So that was not recognized by ISO as a fire station. Now it will be and the ratings will go down as long as the people within five miles of that station. We'd get a water tender after that might help us with the water supply. That's something we'll have to see.

But this is countywide ISO. Right. Well, let's take the one, for example, on Lyons Creek. They don't do different ratings for those folks in five-mile radius versus...

It's pretty well the whole thing as long as the fire stations are rated near that class if you're within five miles of that station, if it's a recognized station. Anything out of that area, it drops to another classification. It depends where the closest next station is. It might be a 6Y, which means they're outside, but they're still receiving the benefits. Or if there's no station close by at all or you don't have any fire protection, it'd be a Class 10, which is technically the worst, like having no insurance whatsoever. Most of our stuff would be a 6 or a little bit lower if we can get it down that way. But that's why we keep improving while we're trying to get the tankers and get these stations built so we can get more of our county coverage and stuff. Station 4 is coming along good. They think they're going to be done in the middle. Friday. This week, hopefully the garage doors will go in. They've got all the sheeting for the sides. They would like a change order in the amount of $4,113. When they took the roof off of that old section, they only took off one half. They noticed that some of the old insulation was wet and stuff. They'd like to tear off the other part as they put the new roofing stuff on, take that old insulation off, and replace everything, put a ceiling over it, and then everything would have the same insulation factor. And I do have the money in the budget for that $4,000. A couple signatures.

Thank you.

That's what I wanted to say.

Good morning.

Thanks. Not the same. Yeah, I'll get her to sign that one. Oh, you can. Okay. Yeah, because we have a notary. We have a notary. Courtney and Tom, they can notarize that. Okay.

Okay. Good morning. I'm the chairman of the Public Billing Commission and John Hoyer is one of the members.

And so this is just to update a little bit

what's going on. And so we did have an update from Stormont Vale here recently. And they are on their last project now, which is putting in new wastewater, domestic water, and doing some electricity, showers and sinks, and the old surge part, which is the old power section of the hospital. They started that about six months ago. to have that completed next year, early summer. Presently, the entire third floor And they hope to have that part done in October. And then they are going to move on to the wound care, moving the wound care and the cardiopulmonary to their locations. And then they'll do the south side of that building, going through and rehabbing that. They're doing the electricity and fire alarms and smoke detectors. strobe lights and they can't do both floors at once because they just don't have room to move everybody around. So they can't do it as they can. The main core electrical project is all done.

All that 1966 electrical stuff is gone and replaced with new switches and some low voltage stuff.

And that actually came in under budget on that electrical portion, $160,000 to $180,000, somewhere in that general area. They can use for another, towards one of their overages in one of the other areas. They do have an additional cap in their capital plan starting this October, they want to do some expansion out there. And so we are in talks with them now to make sure that they buy the building before they start.

So that saves us $187,000 in insurance costs on that.

so uh mr rumble has talked to them in discussions and trying to figure out where what exactly their plans are and where we also had some reports that the elevators were down and they are trying to get reports that a lot of voltage fluctuations, which takes the boards out. And they're having trouble getting parts. But they've got enough elevators now to run all areas of their port. And so they're gaining, which is a good thing. It looks nice. All the reports we get are positive for what's going on out there. I think that's going well.

Ken, did you say with the elevators the problem was because of what was existing in there?

Yes. That's the way I understood it. I don't know if I can answer any questions, but do you have any on that?

I really don't. I know that it does look wonderful. It's nice.

So then, as you know, we are assigned all the accounts receivable, the hospital assigned to the Public Building Commission, all the accounts receivable for all the patients that are paying so much a month. And so we are still collecting that. Year to date, we've collected $282,000. That's a NAF. And... So since we started this whole thing, it's almost $1.6 million. If you've got the report there, you know, the graph kind of shows it graphically. The numbers each month are going down just slightly. Some people are paying off or there's bankruptcies coming in or whatever the case is. It's still worthwhile because all this will come in and then we'll help us pay this bond off. Let's put the money here Mark. We've got two checking accounts. One is the old one. It's still in Gary Community Hospital's name. Some of the things are, you know, not much is going through there. Every once in a while, I'll move money into the other one. There's $45,000 in that one right now. And then the other one, which is at Public Building Commission, we've got $800,000 in there. And here again, that will also be money that goes to a place .

Our expenses in this are very minimal.

Every month we've got $18.56, which goes to UVNS for storage of some things that we have to keep forever, I'm told. Austin Long and their silo accounts, the money comes in to us, and so then they send us a bill for what we owe as our percentage to them. So we have that every month. You know, my time, and that's going down.

Last month it was like seven hours for the month. I don't know that it's going to reset this month. So that's minimal.

And then Stormont-Vale, there are some people that still go to the hospital, call in the hospital, and make payments there. So, the hospital builds us for their time. We are working to eliminate that get that changed. Where the clients can, I mean, the biggest problem right now is getting a hold of. The collection agency to. find out their status and everything. So they're moving us onto another platform in which they'll have their own little internet portal to go in and change things, change their debit cards or credit cards or look to see how much they sell low or what they're paying and all that information on just their stuff. And they're progressing on that. request an update for this meeting, and I haven't got exactly where they're at. When we started on it, some letters have gone out. But just bottom line, we're still spending more than what we're expensing to collect that money, so we'll continue to do that.

Did you say a time frame that a consideration to purchase was going to happen maybe?

I'm not aware of anything. I know that their budget year starts in October and their capital plan is from October through into September. So their construction won't be until that timeframe somewhere. So I know I'm not privy to when that is, but I right now we're just lawyers are talking with each other's Peter and bills attorneys and it'll be up to them to draft. You know, storm avail is not a profit, but I don't know if they are a profit tax exempt or not. Um, if they're not tax exempt, could do on the tax rolls, then that would be a reason why they would want to push it off as long as they can. But I don't know their status for sure to know how that works. As to the time you just figured it out.

Well, we certainly appreciate your time and working on this. It's a process. Yeah.

Jan puts in a lot of time, and we don't pay him a lot for it.

I have a couple openings on EDC.

I don't know if there's anybody raising their hand.

July 1st, I became the airport manager out here. That's a whole hornet's nest.

So you don't want another? I don't know.

I don't know how those things happen.

Yeah, can you? job, you and Tammy and Louisa.

Yeah, without them, I mean, this would be much more difficult.

I just don't think we could have gotten it all done without their help.

Do you have another question?

No, I just, I think we did make a motion just so everybody knows, at our last meeting, when Ken was talking about

board made a motion saying that we thought expansion was a great idea but we can't really get behind that unless they purchase we thought we'd just send them that little message

There's not any other questions.

Thank you.

So I'll take them out.

Very efficient arrest.

Yeah, it's up here in the ceiling. Well, camera's behind you there.

We're over here. Microphone's up there in the ceiling. Kind of fancy now.

If I can see it now, I ain't got to look around behind there now.

The picture is, if you've seen it, it is nice. Looks a lot better.

Okay, you got some print papers that were sent. This one's the second quarter, correct?

I don't have that.

I didn't see any in the packet. Did you send it to Courtney?

If we have time, you can. Do you have the rent calls, anything?

No. Nothing. Nothing? There we go.

I sent that budget one early, early. Yeah.

Was there an accident down on 6th Street yesterday? They were talking about somebody was about the road being closed and they said something happened down there in front of the Montgomery Community College. We've been pretty active lately.

Not yesterday, but there was recently, yes. And the road had to be closed for a short time while they were working the scene for the crew safety. When we're working an accident, we take a sizable area. So we're making sure our crew is safe and we're working around the area safely. I don't have the full order. I was gone. I was on vacation. I just got back today. I do know there was an accident in that area, but I don't know the whole information.

Hopefully you were somewhere cooler than here.

No.

I was in Oklahoma last week and it was 105 there.

They said it was the highest temperature here.

I always had that wind when we were in Oklahoma City and it's still always breezy there.

Sometimes it feels like a furnace.

Oh, here we go.

Okay.

Okay, let's try this again.

Oh, yeah, you guys, I think, did you request last time you compare 6, 2026 to 2025? Did you request that last time?

I apologize on that. We'll do that.

But I can, I have it with me right here. So, second quarter 2025, Totals were $755,654 and change. That's total charges posted year to date.

And as you can see, this second quarter of 2026 is $642,512 and change.

Payments in 2025 were $425,042 and change. And this year was $356,736 and change. Bad debt was a little higher this year with 119,752. As of last year, it was 111,247. And then write-offs in 2025, 155,137 and change. This year, it was 174,474 and change. With a total of adjustments, both bad debt and contractual write-offs in 2025, was $266,384 and change. In 2026, the second quarter was $294,227 and change.

Why the difference in write-off adjustments and insurance write-off adjustments? Why is it up this year versus last year?

The rule of calls has been increased as well from last year. And billing. I can go ahead and add that to billing. We went up in price with you guys with that agreement last year, two years ago, when we increased there.

That's why as well.

I got you.

In fees, sorry.

Just because we charge more in fees doesn't mean we get to collect more in fees. But unlike our system, unlike buying feed or anything else. When we send the bill out, we're not getting paid in two weeks or 30 days. This could be a nine-month process. The write-offs and fees schedule, it's a long process.

It's kind of like a hospital, bad debt on the hospital. It takes years on something.

Yeah, we send it out twice before, when it goes to collections, they have a chance to pay. And another letter that goes out, too, that says, hey, this will be garnished from your wages or whatever job that you have. So, make them work in agreement with us on paying that scale or whatever, too. So, it's not that we accept five bucks a month, you know, if you pay it off.

I'm deep in. They get a percent if they make money. Thank you for that, 25 versus 26.

Okay. Also, the CIP, yes, we already, with the RC Commission, got approval to purchase what would be a 2026 model for 2027, type 3, type 1 ambulance. So, like we said before, if you want to donate more to that, not donate, but you want to put more in the CIP, You will not be in the live.

Have you talked to Tammy about that?

No. If we need to set up another meeting, we can, I guess. I'm wondering, because you guys have to know pretty soon, correct, with your budget by the end of mid-August? 11? No, what is the...

We're going to try and have it wrapped up by the 17th, I think, of August, aren't we?

That would be our last work session. Scheduled.

I'll reach out to you.

I sent out the CIP input to you guys back in April last year and this year.

So it should be on the radar.

Yeah. Call volume. Our calls, responses.

Call volume has kind of been fluctuating a lot this year. June was down, but the other months have been kind of up. You just never kind of know what's going to happen in this world. One thing that's good, that's decreasing the calls for us, is the number of repeat people. These are called frequent buyers or high-usage utilizers. A lot of those people we are working with to get them the help they need so they're not calling . So that's decreasing our calls, but that's actually a good thing. So, and one person has gotten the medical help they need, so they're not calling as often. One person had, that finally got the surgery that person needed. So, there's a lot of factors, but.

You're working with them. Would it be, you know, a health provider or social worker or something? Is that who you'd refer them to or?

Well, we're the tip of the healthcare sphere. So when the crews notice these people need assistance, they funnel that to me, and then I work with the hospital, some kind of social worker, Adult Protective Health, whatever avenue I can work with to try to get some of these people some kind of avenue of help.

that would have taken place before they continue to call you all. So it's good that they're getting at least some help at some point. But it's too bad you have to respond so many times before an effort is made to get them the care that they need so that they're not having to call. Because I'm sure that older people, especially when they're by themselves and scared, they're going to pick up the phone and call ahead of time. They could have been placed or done something with them ahead of time. That's the perfect world, but that's not the world we live in. They're getting there eventually, so that's the good thing.

All we can do is provide avenues for resources. Sometimes we go, hey, you're really struggling at home and the people don't really want the resources that And that's all we can do is provide options. But calls per day, you can see that we're averaging about 8.4 calls per day, 8.3 calls per day through May and June. So pretty busy days, most parts. But in transfers, we haven't been taking any more transfers.

Yeah, you will see Trish always likes to compare that. Last year, 26 total. We're at 26 right now at halfway through the year. So transfers have increased.

And we've taken a couple of Kansas City transfers also here lately.

So things have been busy.

And I explained to you guys too that on transfers, but mainly it is the vehicles. So once we get this vehicle in, it's going to be on a CIP. Every three years, we will get a new bed unit, a rotation of a brand new bed unit. So, yeah. And I can explain that again some other time or what, but. that process.

Is that just the, they have to be updated or you just, three years doesn't seem like a whole lot.

It doesn't, but we have, you've got to consider five med units that need to go through the rotation.

So that's 15 years.

So the first two, yeah, year one to five, There's a front line bed unit. Brand new kind of a thing. They use that for five years. The next step we look at is five to ten.

The cost to have is to replace it.

So front line one to six. Years seven to ten for a reserve. That's the next step. And then year 11 to 15, that's considered a high risk, and it's our backup, backup unit. That's number five, which at some point, Last weekend, all five were out. So it does happen quite a bit.

But keep that one in.

And only use it as a reserve-reserve engine or a med unit status. So that's the rotation we like to keep with a five med unit rotation with a newer upfront. At least the two from both stations, you know. Good to know.

i thought you uh got it the email which was in color so i when i printed this off it was just mostly for me but uh fort riley has also increased their status we will have a chat with their

For EMS, we always request EMS, and they've denied us. I think once in four years, they've sent someone for help for us. Like last weekend, we asked for their help, and they said they only have one per installation, and they denied us. So that's not how MOU works, but we'll continue to talk with them because we don't like to. Yeah, with Fort Raleigh, we have a good. With Fort Raleigh Fire, yes. Mutual, that's great. EMS is a little struggle. They have all new command staff, so we shall see what happens.

Yeah, I was going to say, does that go to Garrison overseas?

Technically, but really MCOM is in charge of medical command, and that's really out of San Antonio.

But they did advise us they're getting more staffing, which we haven't seen yet, to support another unit instead of, I mean, calling us every, whatever, I mean, every other time or so. We went in there 15 times already. So we used to go there three times a year. So that gives you an information there.

Do you have that with Grandview Plaza and Milford?

An MOU? No, they're just part of our response area. I just was curious. I don't know. Now, if we were to separate districts, yeah, there would be something.

I just was curious if you...

The dive team got to know?

I went down there for, yeah, they retrieved the big pickup out of the cistern well. It was a huge cistern, a big well. How deep was that? Do you guys know how deep it was? Probably the 30-some feet is the well, but it was in water like 10 or so, 10 to 15 feet deep. Yeah. Wow. trying to get reimbursed from that, too, because it was a hazardous situation.

So we'll see.

But that was, yes, that was a response. We took three guys to go help with that. The rescue. Not rescue, but it was a recovery. But that's under our agreement.

So what, they just came in? No.

A kid in a vehicle at 1130 and went into the cistern. He was in there floating with a spare tire. with him chest deep in the mucky water, the hazardous water. And someone fishing on the Harrington Dam heard the crash and then later helped. And that's how he was rescued by the Harrington Fire Department that night. They called us for a standby, but they put a 24-foot section ladder into that well, into the back of the pickup, and were able to get him out. And then we were called in the morning to set up to get out the truck out of that well. with our recovery, and Celina has her rotator towing. I heard about that. It was quite the ordeal.

You didn't hear about that? No. That was a huge, huge cistern. That was huge.

Pictures don't show you justice. Really? Because I thought it was huge. That one picture of me waving shows you how big that is.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, because just out there like that.

And all of a sudden, the wall, he didn't even, the wall was this tall from the ground, and he didn't even scratch it, so it must have hit and jumped him, but I mean, it's well built.

Dead animals.

Oh yeah, there were dead birds all We have a fully calculated suit, even my mask. Everything is secure. We bought the best of the best.

Thank you. Yeah. All right. Appreciate it. That's for sure.

You should Google it, Commissioner, and look at the pictures.

It's wild. Four news channels. Wouldn't this happen? It was the 18th, I believe, I think.

No.

It was last Saturday.

Last Saturday.

No, I totally missed it.

Yeah, she changed it to August.

It's on his budget.

Saturday.

No, she didn't have that on there.

10th and 17th, I think is what we talked about.

The 10th and 17th?

Yeah. Something like that. I was just going to ask her if she could put it on there.

Yeah. I know we talked about it, but I don't know. Okay, I'm tired of hearing this from you. Nice. I'll hear it from you. It's still human. It's still human.

We didn't have an executive session for the EDC for anything. It's just our regular at 1245. Someone was asking his wife just around that time.

I think when it got put on there, my impression of it was just As we begin paperwork to get a consensus for structure from the commission.

I will tell them. 1245.

They're looking.

I usually write it down, or I didn't have anything written down, and I did it on my own. Did I tell you that Mandy was teaching this year, second grade? She is? I've been up all of our time. I've been up at the school helping her decorate her room. That's exciting. She finished her master's. She had pretty much all the hours in education when she first started.

At what school?

Lincoln. Lincoln. Yeah, it's kind of funny that the kids will be going to middle school, but then she'll be going to Lincoln, so yeah. Yeah, it was fun to decorate.

We have some really cute stuff that those teachers can put in those rooms.

Yeah, when we were in Oklahoma, they've got a, a teacher's store there, Lakeshore Learning or whatever. Man, it was like, I told Chase, I said, we better get out of here. Him and I walked down to Barnes and Noble because I told him, man, you wouldn't want somebody lurking around.

Yeah, yeah.

But it was, they don't have anything like that anywhere around here.

No.

Open up a teacher's supply store.

What is her theme? Does she have a theme for the room?

It's just kind of pastel. Oh, okay. You know, a lot of light-colored lights up. Yeah. Yeah, I told Mandy, I said, you better throw some fire engines or trucks in here. I said, you got little bows and stuff in the hallway. Those boys need fire trucks. They're second graders. I said, well, so I was going to look for some little stuff to put in between some of that. But, yeah, that was just – I know it used to be when Beth was starting to teach, we used to always go to – Kansas City, on State Line, they used to have a big school supply store there, and they don't have that anymore, so there's really nowhere around here that you can buy school supplies.

Well, they want you to go online.

Well, a lot of that stuff, that's kind of impractical, you know, because, you know, she bought rolls and big stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, they'd have to ship it, because, you know, she had a lot of orders and stuff. Oh, yeah.

I'm happy I do have access to that. I've got an Amazon link from the teachers. I mean, I'm in a different district, but of their wants, because they go through, you know, and put what they want, and then you can just click on it and have it sent to them.

It is still nice, because a lot of times they've Because there's several things, you know, they were having big specials on, you know, things that she wouldn't have got otherwise because she saw them in the store. So there is some benefit to seeing it, but I just had to leave because I had this overwhelming. So you were canceled last week? So you have access to, like, Lakeshore Learning, or is it just school support? Yeah, I don't know my own.

At least after talking to you and then talking to my brother.

Oh. I can't imagine doing it with a weak back. Once you have said it, would you just be in so much pain? I mean, not only would your back be hurting if it's hurting now, then you have this on top of it.

You don't have to let her know that. It doesn't say, have you got that? No.

No.

Oh. I can't believe you've waited a month for that.

No, we've been waiting on them to check the insurance to get the approval.

Oh, no. We had an appointment with him and went and did it, and then I got shot that day, and then I need to call him every three months.

I call him, make an appointment.

I never ever had. I mean, it was within two weeks, whatever.

But you're not, well, you're not going to have surgery.

I don't know, maybe that's... Well, I had a referral from the orthopedic doctor.

Oh, wow.

And so I had my consult, and I said, okay, I sent, can we get the injection? And, well, we've got to check with the insurance first. Couldn't find out this morning, so we've been waiting.

Yeah.

Couldn't find out this morning when we called back. It was like, we called the insurance company and they said, we haven't gotten anything from them. And then we called back at the end of the day and said, what the heck is going on here?

He's the one consuming a lot of these costs like health care.

Yeah. I was surprised I wasn't on that list. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, it's too bad to be because...

I'll ruin the bell curve.

Well, you didn't used to need pre-approval so much through Blue Cross, but you do now because last time I had to have pre-approval for my knee and that took three weeks.

So are you on our insurance?

Just for another month. This one, it took probably that long again, two, three weeks for them. And they had sent it in, and then I got a letter in the mail, and then I knew that it was okay. But, yeah, we didn't used to need quite so much approval.

I can't imagine anybody going and having surgery for nothing.

I mean, you know, if they want to do that, they're bigger people than me.

I know with Addison, we haven't had any problems. Of course, not the same as what it was, but I know that, you know, when the doctors had ordered a procedure or whatever for Addison, and insurance denied it, and it's like, you know, you know, it was as if... His kid is sick, and her doctor is ordering

and you want to deny it? I don't understand. Yeah, it was for a cancer procedure.

She needed for that, but, you know, I know Tiffany Naccarato, too, because we had visited about it, you know, same thing, not with cancer, but she had the same, had a child that had some issues, and, you know, and I just, some, I don't know, that stuff is crazy to be, you know, if you, they're just not, Having you do it just for the fun of it.

Well, that's just it. I mean, I'm not looking forward to getting an injection in my back, but you can go to the ER and they don't have to, well, we can't sew on your finger until we check with insurance.

Yeah.

They can go ahead and do it, but if they declare you not, We have to go out and answer those different levels of authorization.

Keep this in an imminent dump.

I know. Help me. This is what you call the insurance company.

Oh, that you're on hold. Oh, well, do you want to talk about this or do you want to talk about this? Do you want to talk to a person or do you, if this is your number, you can take care of this online. And I'll usually say, I want to talk to a person. Then that thing or whatever it is will come back and say, I'm sorry, I didn't get that.

Oh.

Been there, then that. Oh.

You just keep repeating. I want to talk to a person.

I want to talk to a person.

I want to talk to a person. Oh, well.

Yeah. That's the way of the world anymore, I guess.

So I'm afraid if this doesn't get resolved soon, We're probably going to have to bump that surgery back again.

Yeah. And that's really something that you don't want to do in the winter. I mean, my first one was done on the 31st, and we had that snow then. And, oh, that just scared me to death. But, you know, how long? How long can you wait? That's... I don't know.

Oh.

I don't. How do I get to? I'm going to look out. Bad thing.

I don't know. So you want me to bring it back?

Yeah, we can go ahead and get that done. That'd be great, so we can get them on the website.

Get them on there, yeah.

So Betsy, how is your daughter's, did she have a to-do list?

Did she do a fashion review?

You gave that to us on accident. That was your stuff.

is on she's on the uh chamber board now because um she fell down for um sean robinson he stepped down so so here interest in being on the adc board not to me i don't think we'll put out an official advertisement

I think we should. I don't know what means we need to do that through. Because they did kind of a formal interview.

I know. I felt kind of bad for them because I was watching that. I know they were sitting there and then all of a sudden somebody said, well, I want to ask him a few questions. And it's like, okay. Yeah, that's... Okay, your budget stuff is August 10th at 2.

And August 17th at 3. I must have been just excited last week about going on vacation, because Trish and I both had asked about the 17th, I think. I'm going to do it again right now.

When is the public hearing? Oh, she told us that. Is it in September? I don't remember seeing it in minutes.

Yeah, that's what I looked through in the minutes and there's nothing said in there.

Come on.

Quiet over there in the corner. It has been interesting.

I don't have public comment. Can I give you these guys? I'll let you guys figure out what you want to do. Oh, I got some bags there. This one is starting to get soft here. But if you want to make a bacon and tomato sandwich, that's right off of it. It's ready to eat.

And I remember when your wife wanted those tomatoes at the fair.

What? She wanted those tomatoes at the fair. And I knew you liked them.

And we fried some bacon this weekend so we could have the LTs.

That's what we did. Constant LTs. So if you guys want to split those or whatever, just be careful. Don't put that one on the bottom because it's going to be wonderful. We had a really ripe

Thank you. Well, he's picking them like crazy.

Hey, how did, how did, I wasn't able to make it Saturday morning. How about they have a turnout? There were a few people there, but not a whole lot.

The usual.

But it was all right. Charles does a good job. I'm just glad he sticks with it and does it. There's another one Thursday. He told me on the 31st, and now it's on the 30th. The last one anyway.

Yeah, well, it won't be long and it'll be over.

Yep.

So if you need some more tomatoes, just holler at him.

Yep.

We're out of power. Registration complete. He complains about it, but he likes doing it. We went to the Morris County Fair there Saturday night. Boy, was that hot.

Oh, my gosh. They had a really cool event, the costume contest. I haven't seen one of those for a long time.

Did Gary County ever do that?

No. I don't know whether you were here, I told earlier about the pie eating contest. Yeah.

Oh, you talked about it.

Gosh, that was a hoot.

Did you take a picture of it?

No, I was busy just watching.

Well, I shared it.

Well, I had to tell Randy. He was disqualified.

He didn't care. He just wanted the pie. Yeah, right.

No, who was it?

Give it Ernie. Ernie has a sweet tooth, like.

Yeah. No, there was parents, I could tell, with video in it.

So, I haven't seen that. How many pies were there? This was a pie eating contest.

Pie eating contest. And there was, they had availability for ten, and they ended up with nine. So, and it was vanilla.

It was vanilla pudding pie. Vanilla pudding pie with cream on top. We brought half the pie home, so I got to try a little bit. Ernie ate all his there.

So did that guy, that winter guy.

He was good.

He polished it off.

What was his name? I'd talked to him many times out there because I'd been at the fair every day.

Yeah, I'd seen him out there.

And his kids are really sweet.

That little kid on the end, though, he was, oh my God, he just stuck his head.

And he was serious. He didn't care.

I know. He'd look up and laugh every so often. Was it good kind of pie? Just a little pudding pie. Oh, okay.

but we did that. I remember we did that one time for some organization back home. We just used the, well, it was a pie throwing contest and we use shaving cream. Never, ever do that because they started it. You know what it's like when it gets in your eyes. I was going to say that's bad.

I don't know how many years ago it's been that long. Um, When the Historical Society had their ice cream social, and they had all three commissioners, they took donations. Whoever had the most money or whatever got to throw the pie in the face. I got off easy. Charles was the one that threw it in my face. kind of did that, and that was it. But the other two, what were they? Yeah, and it smeared all over their head and their head, and I was like, oh, man.

We did pie in the face here. Did we? Yeah, it was long, I mean, it was long, Bill, because we did it in the parking lot over here. Oh, I think Rebecca got it. I don't remember if it was United Way or what we were raising money for, but people put money in it. Money in it, yeah.

I posted it. It was that little kid. He was just so cute.

Oh, yeah. He wasn't in there?

No, Keith was judging, fortunately. I didn't get one good picture.

Oh, gosh, yes. It was hard to get pictures of him. Oh, my God. Yes, that was him.

But he just sat there so calm.

Yeah.

You know, just like, oh, this is okay. It was like having a baby having their first birthday cake.

You need to send that to me. I wanted to show my wife because she wasn't there that night.

Oh, shit.

That one needs to be publicized somehow for the fair itself. They need more kids in there. Did you see Teresa? This is that young boy.

He was having fun. He was. And he kept putting his face in. That's cute.

He can barely see out his eyes.

I've never seen anything like that before.

Well, most people don't want to stick their face in junk like that.

Well, and for a child, you know, and everybody laughing and having fun, you know, you'd think he'd be like, ooh.

Thank you, ma'am. Yum, these are pretty, Desiree.

They're good. He's getting warm.

I'm getting a few, but not very many. What are those little ones called? Remus. Remus.

Yeah, they're good for your salad.

Get some bread and some lettuce.

Yeah, that's a lot of lettuce in here.

Yeah, that's a lot of lettuce. or or or or or or or

Is that maybe us? What are you guys doing? He is short, and he speaks up. I was sad to hear that, but I get that too. There was people with me at the movies. I said, that shouldn't be, that's conflict of interest, you know. I'm sure of it, you know, so.

And that's like these guys. That's all set and done by now. I can see him.

Right.

Well, and he's very professional.

Yes, he is.

When he talks, he doesn't degrade people.

No.

No.

No. Well, he is.

I'm just funny with this.

I know. But it's a good thing it's finally happening.

Yeah.

You know, it's not needed to happen for so long. So you can understand why the public's upset. You know, when this all goes through, it's going to help so much.

Yep.

It's going to help so much.

Well, it's just too bad it went on so long.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. And the other companies, whatever that has maybe shown interest in us, they're going to say, because it's not been run by.

And I think it's hurt us in the moment.

Exactly. Definitely. So, I mean, it's as broad as it is long.

And you can't wait on the public for it because the public's on. You know, why are they not upset? You just got to get through it all.

Yeah. Like Kathy said, you got to move forward. I mean, you just can't keep dwelling on the past. Right. You got to go. You got to keep going. You got to keep going.

I don't know.

I haven't thought about it. I really haven't thought about it. Because I really like it.

Yeah. He'll speak up.

Yeah. I'm just proud of you guys. Don't get discouraged. Keep at it. I'm just happy with that. I'm discouraged. I'm encouraged. Who gave this to us? CPA, you happy now?

I didn't see this. You gave it to me. I didn't get to see it. Gosh. I just went to sleep this morning.

Hello. Good morning.

Well, good afternoon.

Well, hello there.

I haven't had to call the drones lately. Nobody's been spying on me. I must have scared them.

Watch out. A lot of these cities are getting those drones that dispatch power.

Oh, my goodness. Betsy, you gave this to me, right?

It's advancing. I would say.

So is it legal or illegal to shoot one down?

Well, I would say let's lean.

I was just going to ask you if you shot it.

Let's lean towards the illegal side, but you might be able to have some exception there.

Okay, Tammy, you're defending your own time. That's what I think.

I would say you have maybe some rights if it gets on the property, but I still would not want to.

Yeah, the statutes are so vague, they have not even touched it when they need to. Yeah, come on. Jump in right now.

Are we waiting on?

No, we're all here.

Whenever you're ready, Kathy, just let me know.

question for y'all just when you get done don't let me forget to ask you about it please.

Okay. Go ahead and get started. Sure. Yep. All right.

Good afternoon.

Nate Beckman, Gary County Sheriff. I will be covering the two-week staff from July 8th to July 21st. During that time frame we averaged 108 inmates on the average daily population there. We took 11 accidents, 42 corrections, yes Am I reading that right? Yeah, 11 accidents. We assisted outside agencies 42 times. We took one battery slash assault. We did two burglaries in that timeframe. I will add that I know we're going to come back. One of those down south was most likely solved or still in the process of getting solved. So that's good police work there on everyone's side there. We issued 68 citations in that two-week timeframe. We served 209 civil papers. We dispatched to one domestic incident, one drug investigation, five UIs, 10 prisoner transports. We did one death call in that two-week time frame, conducted 258 traffic stops. We made 23 arrests, and then we had a total 632 primary incidents calls for service with an additional call for service of 88. For a total call for service for that two-week time frame was 720. So that's the stats. And Kathy, I'm going to remind you if you have a question for me.

I've had a couple.

And again, one on Saturday from Mr. Berkowitz. And I told him that I would bring it up again because I'm in agreement with him. I think it would be very frustrating because he sent photos again of these chickens and dogs getting out. And he says when he contacts the sheriff, they said there's nothing that you can do. And I guess my question is for the counselor and sheriff, what can be done? Because I go along with this. There's nothing. more aggravating. And if that was me, there's a rooster somewhere around my house that keeps crowing or something.

It's just driving me crazy. I'm back to get my flashlight out at night. You know, I don't blame him at all for, you know, having this stuff.

Y'all, what is the status or why is nothing being done?

So I can definitely agree with him as his frustration. We all would be frustrated in that situation. Nothing being done is inaccurate. We've seen the videos. We've seen the pictures that he sent.

I'm sure he's going to come back and talk on this a little bit. You kind of were personally dealing with the situation.

Him and Major Record was dealing with the situation. We responded. We have, to my best knowledge, meeting up with Stopper as well as Record. Certain reports have been sent to the county attorney. Once we do our report, We just send it up, and it's up to the county attorney to pursue. So I'll let Under Sheriff Stauber maybe talk about anything else. We have been doing things. It's just once we are done, we send it.

Yeah, that's good to know. That way I can respond better when I hear that.

So I'm not certainly accusing and saying you're not doing your job.

I just always want a better side of the story.

And I know it's frustrating for him, just like it would be for anyone. I don't know if you have anything else to add to that.

I don't. I'm not aware of any recent reports to our office. I might be wrong in that.

I might just not be aware of it. He just sent one Saturday and showed a picture of the chickens in his yard.

This Saturday?

Yeah.

I'm not aware of that one. He did send one, what, a week and a half, two weeks ago? I mean, one before that.

He just said reporting it to you is important to us. Oh, really? Yeah. He said that he... I'll do these research. Yeah. Yeah. I can forward you it.

is email so that you have the information. You know, you don't like the perception of, you know, when you hear that you're not doing your jobs.

And, you know, again, I want you to be able to tell us.

Well, I want to be aware of it. Sure. Because if it's not brought to my attention, your attention, I don't know about it. And if my deputies are responding not to anything, then that will be handled appropriately. But I do know for a fact that at least the last The first two I'm aware of, they responded in my understanding, talking to Major Rekorig because it was brought to my attention. I asked Major Rekorig about it, making sure that we're doing our job, and he said the report was filed and sent up. So at that point, we'd have to inquire with the county attorneys and see where that is at. Did they pursue it? Is there enough evidence to pursue?

So I need to get with her to find out what the status is.

of that, then that's good to know, because like I said, I'm only asking so that I can follow up with him, too, because I tried to respond to him.

I know all of it is aggravating, but on the other hand, again, I would like personally. No, I understand. You know, your dog's barking and carrying on, and the chicken's in your yard.

I agree.

Justin, do you want to read the email? Is it the one that just this Saturday?

Yeah. Yeah.

you sent it to us or what does it say oh it's not your buddies are back on my property property again i haven't seen that one so i'll do some more research too if he's reported it does we're not doing anything that's our fault but i'm i'm unaware of actual official reports the chickens or the dog this one was chickens i mean he has avenues that are not through the county that he probably needs to explore uh as well. So, he has, he can hire an attorney and file a nuisance claim or do something, get an injunction civilly.

With all due respect, that would frustrate me more if I should have to hire somebody for, you know, doing my due diligence and coming to the county to report it and hopefully it's being taken care of.

I shouldn't have to hire. The county's not necessarily, it's not a crime.

have a resolution in place what is the purpose of doing all this then if there's no resolution covers dangerous animals well if the dog's just on the property so it has been a dangerous animal well i thought the resolution i don't think it was i think it was to increase or decrease the the the size of the the law so that was a zoning resolution to my knowledge he has not uh filed anything with

zoning commission.

So yeah, no, because it was a zoning thing in order to fix this situation is what I understood.

And to be clear, the official report that I'm speaking of doesn't have to do with the dog being on the property. It has to do with the neighbor dispute, maybe a damaging property, maybe not. That's the report that we sent up. And I don't know what the county attorney has to do, but yeah, when it comes to just the dog running across the yard or whatever, like That's not a dangerous animal. But we did take a report where I believe if I got my facts straight, something was turned off, an alarm of some sort, an audible alarm was turned off because it was causing disturbance in the neighborhood. And there was accusations that something was damaged. Well, if you guys read that statute on damage to property, you have to have intent. I purposely came there and damaged that. And we explained all that in an email because he was frustrated with the status kind of outline what the statute reads and that did not satisfy him. So we're trying to do the best we can, but you know, we have limitations we have to work under.

And I understand, you know, there's, you've got other things too that could be considered more important.

We're not too busy to respond to whatever. It's just we have laws we've got to follow.