Neosho County Commission - Regular Meeting

I'm going the wrong direction.

Hold on.

I will call to order the Board of County Commissioners of Neosho County, Kansas. This is Tuesday, May 19th, 2026, 1 o'clock, and this is a regular meeting. We will start with the Pledge of Allegiance and the invocation from Chris Diller. You all stand. United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Heavenly Father we want to first of all thank you for this for the institution of government that you have ordained for us

to help us and to guide us and to keep us hemmed in where we need to be. But also, Lord, we're just thankful for all of these people who have come and served in these capacities. We're thankful for all of the employees of the counties and the cities and in the county and even the state workers within the county as well. We just ask you, Lord, to help us to gain a vision for a bigger a bigger picture of what's going on in this world and in our county. And we'd ask that you would help us to learn to hear more voices. because your word says that there's wisdom in the counsel of many, and so we just ask that you would help us with that. Help us to find, in whatever way we can, a win for everyone in this meeting and all others. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, sir.

Are there any agenda changes, any deletions, corrections, or additions?

I don't think it was a text, so random, I think you got it in your packet. Okay.

Okay.

And then we need to add also the 24 audit.

We need to approve that. All right, so commission comments or reports?

We had a regional planning committee meeting, and we had to foreclose on a place in Chanute. And we're trying to sell it. And I've talked to Tonya about it. And I think you've talked to John. Has John talked to you? Yeah, but I think we're going to go ahead pay it off, and then have you make some adjustments, hopefully. And anyway, we're not going to let that happen again. We need to check on the back. taxes that they have not paid. I mean, if you get a loan from a bank to buy a place, I mean, if you don't pay your taxes, that loan company calls you up. So anyway, we're trying to fix that. And we're going to recover our losses. And hopefully, it ain't going to happen again. But anyway, that's what I got.

so i attended a crda meeting already so that was interesting they are really reorganizing and refocusing what they're doing they have a new director and so there's a lot of good things going on there and i'm glad we're involved because some things were said and like about property tax and stuff i'm like well that doesn't really have anything to do with the city anymore and they're like oh yeah uh it's like you need to you know inform the county so anyway i think it's a it'll be a good uh relationship there and impressed with their new director so looking forward to that uh then this thursday uh the league of kansas municipalities which we are members of is having a city forum and they're actually having one in chenute so i'll be attending that i don't know if you guys got notice of that anyway i get their emails um but it is uh there is a cost to it they're gonna feed us lunch and then it's like a two-hour meeting after that so i didn't know if it would be okay if i would submit an invoice so that would be for twenty dollars but i'll pay that thursday and then reimbursed but that should be interesting that's another local organization that we need to be involved in and we pay dues for that and to see what the city of chenute has to say about you know where they're at and so i think that would be a good meeting

Well, we also had a gentleman come in at the meeting of Chanute that was talking about polymer. There was a lot of stuff made out of polymer. Well, there's oil made out of polymer, like tank linings and stuff. But he was talking about getting that because you make it from what I understand, castor oil, which you've got to import that. But there's a plant that you can grow. especially in dry land areas like out west, which I was just out there. It's really dry. But anyway, something to look into. And everybody there was really interested in it. So it could be a, you know, get some businesses in for that polymer, get some jobs, you know. So anyway, I think I'm going to look into that. And I think the rest of the committee is going to. It was really, sounded really good.

CHRISTIE WOODSON- Good. Any new businesses that we can bring in to the area?

MIKE PATTERSON- I agree.

All right, next we have public comment. Does anyone? You'll come forward, tell us your name and address.

AJ Kohler, 10758 Northwest Lawton Road, Columbus, Kansas. I am the new reporter at the Chenier Tribune, so I just wanted to come introduce myself. I'm also the news director at KLKC over in Parsons. I replaced Annette Tucker, who was there for a long time. So it's nice to meet you all, and I look forward to, if you guys have any events or anything, just send me that message. Great.

Do you have a car or anything? No, not yet.

Okay. I can get you my email.

Get one to the clerk's office? Yeah. You'd get one to the clerk's office. She can kind of keep you abreast of what's new.

All right, so next is the consent agenda. Does anyone have any questions on that? we now are including the tax roll corrections that we have we've been just the chairman's been signing those but those actually need to be approved by the whole commission so I'll make a motion to accept the consent agenda or to approve the consent agenda which includes the tax roll corrections we might put dates on those next time or is there

You can do a range.

Okay. Accounts payable in the amount of $284,480.69. Payroll clearing of 207-192-86. And we have seven department head leave requests. Second that. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carried. And we don't have any scheduled attendees today. So we're on to department heads already. So the first one we have is Tanya that has an application for a tax rebate.

We do have a new NRP application. This is from Jamie and Pam Carlisle. They are building a new house. It's gonna be up in the Burris addition, which is up by the high school. The address will be 1103 North Massachusetts. This has not actually been filed in their name yet. It's still in the city's name, but it will be filed soon. And this is for a house estimated cost of 450,000.

I'll make a motion to approve the NRP application for Jamie and Pam Carlisle for a new home to be located at 1103 North Massachusetts in Erie for $450,000.

I'll second it. All those in favor?

Aye.

Motion carried.

All right.

That's good news.

Yeah. And then I need a 10-minute executive, attorney-client, please, with the commission, Brett, and myself.

What was the purpose? Sorry. Non-elected?

Attorney-client.

OK. I move to recess into executive session to discuss matters deemed privilege of the attorney-client relationship regarding the appraiser's office for ten minutes to include Commission counsel the appraiser and we will come back at 1 20 I'll second the motion all those in favor aye motion carried All right, we're back in session and no action was taken. So are we done with you, Tanya?

That's all I have. Okay. Do you guys have a question?

No. All right. Do you want to go? Do you want Melanie to go?

It doesn't matter.

All right.

good afternoon i have a copy for each of you well multiple copies of many things for each of you have the health department road and bridge oh excuse me i apparently have fur balls today uh road okay health department road and bridge treasure and maintenance department's job descriptions so that leaves just the county attorney and um i need just to be able to sit down with Cheryl and figure that out. Because prior to Cheryl, I wasn't receiving responses. So there's really no way to build something without knowing anything. I just don't know. Yeah.

Understandable.

Thank you. There are. just a couple that were reworking because they don't quite fit what the employee position is doing. So I do owe the noxious weed, the part-time maintenance assistant, and then we have two gentlemen down in Broden Bridge. One is classified as a truck driver slash equipment operator, and the other one is a truck driver slash laborer. And so we have to figure out how to blend that together so working with Heather Poorman at the Arnold Group to create that. I think those are the only four that I would owe you outside of the attorney's office right now. In the interim though, those two gentlemen, they're gonna do just truck driver job descriptions so they at least know what's expected as part of that and of course in every job description it does say as other duties as needed so at least we'll have something on record um i have mark that off so i don't forget or get messed up here um trying to think if there's anything else i can talk about publicly I guess the department had reviews with you guys. If you figure about 15 minutes per department head, roughly, that's give or take, it's about two hours of time. I wasn't sure if you would be interested at, not this next meeting, but at the June, I forget what June it is, the June 16th meeting, if you would like to have Time with each of us like before the meeting so like maybe come at 10 You know work till 12 and hopefully knock everyone out and then have a break for lunch and then go into the Commission meeting When did you say June 16

Are you writing it in?

No, I'm just trying to figure what time are we talking?

10 a.m. Yeah, 10 to maybe noon, 1130 noon. So we have six department heads that we have to evaluate.

Isn't it seven? Okay.

Well, we don't have 911. true don't really need to evaluate that's right yeah someone retiring or someone coming in I guess no that makes sense so there's six so if we do be an hour and a half 15 hour and a half 10 30 probably still starting at 10 o'clock would be a good idea yeah we'll give you plenty of time for going to lunch before the meeting sure so on the

In case you need to yell it like me more than the others, you have a few extra minutes. There you go.

Okay, so we'll do 10 o'clock on the 16th.

I'll get a schedule so you know who's at what time and email that to you guys. In addition, I will email you just so you have them all in one email, all the department head job descriptions, so you don't have to go through and find all of that or whatever. It'll be at your fingertips.

So last time I had given you guys a evaluation form. Sorry, I thought I copied it. Now I can't find it. Were you OK with using that? So I think what we need to do probably is, at the next meeting, get a copy of those for each one of those departments. And we fill out, each individually, we fill out an evaluation. And the department head fills one out. And then we come together. and talk that out, but I think that we're gonna have to do a little bit of homework.

Are you gonna provide the copies for the department heads or is that something you would like me to do? And if so, I just need an email.

Yeah, I'll get it to you sometime or whatever.

Okay, yep.

Sorry, because I, anyway, I don't think anyone had any changes, so.

Okay.

and I might write up maybe a little maybe I don't know so much this time as whether it's an evaluation of or you know let's get on the same page because we haven't done evaluations for such a long time so I don't want people to be intimidated by them I think it's more of making sure that we what their job is is what both of us understand it is so

Should be too easy.

Looking forward to it. I know back in the day when I was at Brooklyn Bridge, our foreman would evaluate us every year.

Yeah, we used to do it. I'll do our heads at one time. I don't know. We're going to get back to that.

You'd have to sign off on it. Well, before I started. You might not agree with it. I'm not sure why, but yeah. So I'd like to request a 10-minute executive session for non-elected personnel in the 911 department to include commission counsel and myself, please.

I'll make a motion to approve, I'm sorry, to move to recess into executive session to discuss personal matters of non-elected personnel regarding 911 for 10 minutes to include commission counsel and HR director and come back at 1.40.

I'll second the motion.

All those in favor? Aye. Motion carried.

We're taking action.

You think right here, you got to go out west. No action was taken. Hey, Nick, I got some weed out over by Stratton, Colorado. It was that tall. And the heads were the size of that pencil right there. It was terrible. They hadn't had rain since September.

That's crazy. If you would, Paul, I believe you have a motion.

I'll make, I move to hire one employee for 911 department, effective 5-19-2026. Second.

Any more discussion? All in favor? Aye. Motion carried. Thank you for that.

I have... just one more thing technically two but the same department so i need to request another 10-minute non-elected 10-minute executive session regarding non-elected personnel of the road and bridge department to include myself commission council and road and bridge director mike

So I'll move to recess into executive session to discuss personal matters of non-elected personnel regarding road and bridge for 10 minutes to include commission counsel, road and bridge director, and HR director. And we will come back at 1.50.

I'll second the motion.

All those in favor? Aye. Motion carried. We're back in session and no action was taken.

That is all I have for today. Do you all have any questions or requests for me?

I have nothing.

So the other thing else I have a question is, so part of the budget is having evaluations done by each department. So either... Can you give us a report or if department heads, when we meet next week during our budget session, maybe the department heads need to know that they need to at least give us a progress report on their evaluations and kind of a timeline.

I think a good chunk of them have already completed them. I just have not received actual copies to put in the folders, which I actually thought about today. I'm going to send an email to get those. And then, yes, I'll reach out to the ones that I know aren't complete and see if they need any assistance from me in making that happen so that we can get some kind of timeline because eventually we're going to need, you know, all that plugged in.

Yes. To the work study. So

and then we'll work on ours yeah so okay that's all i have then okay thank you sandy yep um i will be heading upstairs if you can just give me a call to get everybody paid sounds good thank you y'all have a good afternoon you too all right melanie we're going to take our time because nick is about to leave early

You didn't buy my groceries the other day.

You were correct. I don't make commissioner money.

You make more. Don't go there.

But your wife was the shopper, not me. Remember? She was in charge of what you told me to do. So Tasha and I had, I sent you, I flooded your emails with the, whatchamacallits, the bid, the quote, sorry. Ooh, it's been a long day already.

And they're all in our packets, so now you want all the information.

I did not print them out again because I knew that Chastity had done that. I didn't think you probably needed another 24. I don't believe you have the bricks one. I don't think you emailed that to me. Did you? I don't think so. I think you just printed it off. Whatever it was. So after having our demo, we had decided to speak as well.

We would prefer to go with HQE.

They had a feature that none of the others had that would be helpful for us.

currently melodies whether man can't read one sir I'm sure whatever

Do you?

Okay.

See, I wasn't talking smack about him. I was just saying. Don't go back and tell him that. So HQE. I know. I'm so on the ball today.

Is this still the same quote as we had last time? Yes. So the three-year was $6,806.65, or the five-year was $6,050.

The first year, however, is going to be a little higher because of onboarding. I think it was like $6,331. Is there a quote in here? Yeah, it's still cheaper than . Yeah, because our code red is 6908. So either way, it's still cheaper.

Really?

Yes.

That's nice. It's going to be page 10. Page 10.

Yeah, it looks like the quote looks like this. It has a blue front.

I will ban it for you.

Here we go. Page 10. It is a block. It's got that number. I got a headache already. I mean, I didn't know if you had a chance to look over the kind of specifics that I sent you. I know it was a lot. Because you can't just have a piece of paper that says this is how much it is. They have to say, hey, we do the latest and greatest widget-y things. It was between HQE and Genesis. They both have, like I said, the ones around us have Genesis. So, I mean, and they've had good luck with it. I did reach out to a county in Kentucky that does. Because I always do this when I... We decided to go with something new because you can see something on paper and they can give you a demo and you can be like, oh, this might be great. But I reached out to a county in Kentucky that actually uses HQE because they had Code Red before. And so they had had really good success with transferring over and they've utilized it for the last year. So I told him if he ran into some problems up until we made our decision to let me know because... out of the blue i just called and said hey what do you think and and he said they were very professional and the software has really been very um because they had the same problem with code red with issues of that so that is our recommendation

I tend to say a three-year contract.

Yeah, with a new vendor.

Well, and they also, they will extend out every year with a discount after the fourth up to the sixth year, which has escalation. So you're getting around that, and then you're not tied to them if something goes on or some technology changes. Right, right. I mean it's a good point that I make the motion to baseline word software module offer with option. The 3 year discount package. and the amount of $20,735.79 and it's split between you guys I'll second the motion any more discussion all those in favor aye

How long will it take to get in? It should be pretty quick. I will call him this afternoon when I get back.

Do we have to sign up for it again? I don't.

No, I can transfer that information. Actually, Code Red now, we have access to it. Shirley has had some issues with hers. I had to send messages to a lady who's bedridden in Galesburg because she wasn't getting messages. So we're going to do this as quick as possible.

OK, I didn't know how that worked.

Yes, we actually have the database of people, which is a fairly new thing because before you could just see a phone number. So I can see the username and their addresses and all of that shenanigans. We'll do it as quickly as possible with as little hiccup as possible as well. No problem. And I did send you my EMPG. And I don't know if you have a copy of the thing, but I'm going to. Oh, good. Nope, we don't. Okay. Looks pretty good. Oh, sure. It's okay.

Sure.

Do you guys need anything from me?

Nope.

Okay. I'm going to go back to the office. All right. Have a good one. See you, Tasha.

She wasn't asking you, Mellon. She has a bigger budget.

Maybe she would be sure.

Is that on the record? Where is that? So I just need the... I saw that you got the award letter of 23... I don't know if you have the award letter. Can I borrow yours? Well, she has my original, so... So the award letter we finally got, the feds finally opened up after... opening and closing and opening and closing and so now and we finally got our awards letter of twenty three thousand five thirty nine twenty nine and so you have the reimbursement packet which is what it will i will send to the state once i get a signature on the application because they have a new deputy director for katie and so we have to redo that hoopie thing and i still have a piece of paper i could get from the city too

So we just need to approve the application?

Yeah, and then sign out on that where that pink tab is. And I'll get it scanned again. I have until the 12th, but I wanted to get it done as quickly as possible.

Where do I need to sign on this? It looks like your signature. Authorized official. Oh, OK. I'm sorry. Signature.

to approve application for the EMPG program award letter for 2026? 2025. 2025.

We're now six months behind. Okay.

I'll second it. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carried. Very good. Thank you for all your work. Continued. Anything else?

Nick, would you like me to stay up there and talk some more?

No. You're good, Melanie. Have a good weekend. You too.

Is it the weekend? No, wait. It's Tuesday morning. All right. Are we down to Mike?

Yep. Nick came to have a weekend.

I think I'll go ahead and get the I have the contract books for the 70th Road asphalt overlay from Galesburg to 169 highway that needs signed and dated and and stamped by our clerk. And also, I know we've already approved this, but I didn't know if you wanted a motion on that again, just because, I guess. before we sign it or approve the project. do you have the contract yes i have the books are right here i mean we accepted yeah i don't know do we need another motion i mean we already accepted this in the bid process right here are the books if you want to just flip to the one that says sign that requires Just one signature? Yes.

One for us, one for the engineer, one for the contractor, one for... Yeah. Do you get one for the clerk's office? You get one there.

Yeah, we get one. Contractor gets one, and CFS gets two.

Are we not getting the books anymore for the clerk's office for filing?

I'll have to share mine with you. That's what the instructions say. Right.

We can... No, we don't.

Notifying by email and

The bridge deck overlay project started. We met out there last Tuesday, actually ended up looking at two different sites, one on Elk Road south of Chanute and then the one on Mead Road south of 20th. And after that we went to the North Island Bridge did the field check there. I think that they're ready to start on the final set of drawings for that. We discussed the possibility of having the letting probably after the first of next year, early 27, if that's all right. I really don't think we'd want it any sooner than that. need to build up our road sales tax account after we do that 70th road overlay if you're okay we'll just say next spring if that's all right We were scheduled to start treating the unofficial detour roads for the railroad overpass project today, but I told the guy yesterday that we were expecting severe storms and I wanted him to talk this morning before we did that. And we got, like down at our shop, we had two and a quarter inches. There's reports of two and a half and even three inches of rain. I called him first thing this morning and back that off I mean there's rain in the forecast for the next 10 days yeah 10 days a little bit of rain won't hurt us at all we just don't want it saturated because in the product well it'll be really saturated if we rain every day for 10 days yeah and some of these are like 95 percent chance of rain and

Yeah if there's a little moisture that really.

Yeah I mean if there's no moisture you have to actually water the road to get it to soak in a little bit better but if it's too wet then your product is going to run off and we don't we don't want that so we'll just have to play it by ear. Get it treated as soon as we can but that's that's where we're at on that. We kind of talked about the, well I guess we didn't, but we got the noxious weed truck out. It's ready to go. Hopefully we'll be starting that fairly soon. I think that Mr. Moyer will be a good fit. We'll welcome him on board. Let's see. That's all I have.

I don't know if you guys got an email on the watermelon road. What's the distance on that?

Four or five miles. Yeah, I believe. Right there.

I just forwarded to Mike. What I was just saying, it might be, I mean, it is a major little junk inside the city there, as far as. As we're finishing one project, the Gelliver maybe has an issue. Jump over? Sometime. I mean, I don't know if we have the funds at that time. It's just something to think about.

About, say that again.

Extending while they're over, laying all the way through to there, while they're there, and their mobilization wouldn't be that expensive to do parts of it or do it all if we have the funds. be a nice hired service road that would be really nice in their areas.

Well, depending on when they do that, we technically don't have the funds.

Right. I'm just saying that there's something to look at or try to plan out and then you have some several areas.

You know, maybe we could get them to just do some patching for us on it. I mean, I know that's not what the people want, but I do have a map of that if you want to look at it because that's I got the, you sent me the do any rut filling or anything like that there's where it ends and their camp is you know so they're going almost three miles into wilson county on gravel after that and then they're going quite a way south i'm assuming that's a private driveway i don't know which campus is

It was a Christian camp.

Oh, I thought it was. That's why I've been on this route.

I've been to that camp.

Okay.

So we wouldn't be able to do it. There's a low water bridge. Help the city of Thayer in that area.

Yeah, especially that first mile to the west of town. There's probably whatever, eight or ten houses through there. And then after that, there's not near as many. Right.

Yeah. Yeah, after you get to that bridge down there, there's nothing else.

Right. Just a thought, I mean, it's already currently a hard surface, so as we're trying to improve all these hard surfaces and mobilization, you have such great costs in their mobilization.

True. Would you want me to just check with them and see about... just would you just consider like patching it like yeah or something yeah i think that'd be a good start i mean because anytime you do those patches it's not money wasted because you have to patch them before they overlap right yeah so get some pricing on both of them kind of get an idea i mean

Technically, if you're coming from out of town and you're going to the camp, you don't have to go through Thayer. You can go down 47, so that part of the road that would need to be patched doesn't have... It doesn't have most of the traffic, so it would be more for the town. I'm just saying, when I went to the camp, we went down 47 and then came down. We didn't go through Thayer, so we missed that road of

It would depend on what direction you're coming from.

Yeah. Anyway, OK. I didn't realize that's what we were talking about.

Obviously, maybe inside the city or sort of that. That's all I had.

Yeah, as far as doing anything major, By the time we do the 70th road overlay and the bridge over decks, we've spent all the money that we've brought in by that time. And then we still have 30th road bridge also to do. Because we're going to have the bid lighting for that soon. And that's a couple hundred thousand dollars. So I'm just saying doing anything major right now is really not

I just get some idea of the prices of what we're looking at. It's my thing. It's not saying we go for it and do it.

I can check on that back with you.

I mean do they use the same equipment if they're going to be doing an overlay is that the same equipment is patchy or is it.

Yeah, they have a lady a machine that they have a lot of sin before they do the overlay that way the rush don't reflect through when they do the over and get the right that it will run over the spot.

I know that was really alligator crack bad. Yeah, yeah.

And we're probably going to have to do something with the show on Elk Road west of the river bridge, you know, because it's getting a lot of cracks on it. I don't know. We want to consider a double chip and seal or hire somebody to come in and fill the cracks. But we're probably going to have to do something. Or maybe what they call a scrub seal. We'd have to hire somebody to do that. We don't have the means to do, I like the scrub seal. But we don't have the means to do that. Whether it is to spread the oil. They have a broom behind the truck that pulls that kind of like a squeegee. It just goes slow and it pulls that oil and as it's going over the cracks it forces that oil to run down in the cracks and then you spread your chips on top and it's a pretty slick setup but we'd have to hire somebody to put the oil down for us. Just a thought.

So the good news is that we did just finalize the 24 audits so we actually now know that there's money left in the Shaw Road bond account and so there should be about $230,000. So we now have that figure so we do have that money that we can

Fixed the shoulder.

Fixed, uh, that's terrible.

I saw that one.

The cavern. I don't want to call it a cavern, not a shoulder. It's getting bad. It's dangerous. Well, you're not supposed to be that close to the road edge, but yeah.

The road isn't supposed to have that much of a drop off. So I think that needs to be our next focus. I really feel like that now we have that money somehow.

in the end of the shower are going to help that yeah cut that out anyway those will be the widening i'm not sure how far two hundred thirty thousand dollars that money is there so there might be some uh easement issues on that widening Oh, that will. We were pushing. The gentleman there, Nick. No, we were pushing how much we had.

I don't think we'll have any there, Nick, and the reason I say that is all we're going to do is just pay for the shoulders. Shoulders, okay. We won't be asking for any more.

If you have to go out, it's narrow. That's where the right-of-way was. I remember negotiations on that. It's really narrow.

We just need to pave what we have.

The shoulders that are there go back maybe 100 feet or so. I think we'll be fine. But we'll be within the right of way.

Yeah, the cavern is really fixed bad. I totally agree.

After this last, I just can't believe how bad it is.

I don't know why they didn't raise that road through.

you remember nick i mean because that bridge was already that bridge was already built there and that's a fairly new bridge that bridge when it was replaced whenever that was it's probably 30 40 years old by now but it should have been raised up probably another three to four feet and that would allow them to raise the road up because now if you raise the road to where it won't flood, you're gonna force all that water against the bridge and you don't want that. You don't want that water pushing on that bridge. I blame the inspector. If you really wanted to get serious about that at some point and maybe we should consider that is put some box culverts into the To the west of that bridge. I mean, good size box colors. You know, something, you know, 10 foot, a couple, a pair of 10 footers, and that might let enough water flow through there where it wouldn't go over the road, possibly. Would some amount of poor farm work? They might, but these probably should be stick built, you know, built from scratch, in my opinion.

On site.

We've got places for those. I just don't have enough time and enough manpower. But maybe someday. DAVID BURRAGE. Do you have anything?

MIKE PATTERSON.

Oh, yeah. I got a couple things, Mike. More than two, I think. Let me look them up. OK, I had a call from Jim Bates. He lives on 60th and Irving. And they're doing that fiber optic. And they mow out to the road. And they were on the county right of way. But they parked their equipment right there on the county right of way, but anyway, right in front of his house. And he was upset because they didn't come and inform him, which they should, I think. But anyway, Mike, do you have the guy's number that's a head guy on that project? Could you get that to me and just name him? I'm going to give him a call. I'll have to get it. I don't have it. OK. Just text it to me or something. And I see you got the pothole at Deary High School fixed, right? That first time, it was just, I went there, it wasn't even stuck. It wasn't even sticking. So appreciate that. Ed, did you know there's some holes out west going to the highway? There's several out there, of course.

On 150th? Yeah.

And then I had a call from Ray Heisey. He lives on 90th and Mead, the dead end going back to the south. He's got a tree down there that's dead and it's going to fall. probably in a road someday, and he was wondering if we couldn't go down there and push the tree on him. He said he'd take care of it. And it hadn't been brush cut in several years. So I asked him about that, and he said him and his neighbor are taking care of it. They're trimming it. And I said, how about brush cutting? He said, no, I don't want that. I said, last time he was down there, they had stuff everywhere. So anyway, if you could check that out, Mike, he's got the tree marked. And I believe it's close to being on it. It's right on it right away. But anyway, I think he'd really appreciate that, Mike. OK. What else we got? OK, well, we talked about the 160th intersection. Did you get that covert unplugged there? Did I? It was pretty bad, wasn't it, Mike?

Yeah, it was. I hadn't noticed it.

Yeah, it went over the bridge. You know what, Mike? Stump and I have cleaned that out several times back in the day. It's always done that, you know. But anyway, appreciate that. Okay, got that. Yeah, in the Rooks Highway, that guy spreading that rock, that was pathetic, the way he spread that rock. I mean, it was dangerous, Mike. I went over it. Somebody going down there 45 miles an hour late, you know. But anyway, I know he's using that state truck, which I know how they work. You know, they're not shined up and stuff. But, you know, are we down that much on trucks?

We were at the time.

Yeah. I was going to say, maybe we need to get some trucks instead of graders. But anyway, and we're talking about the Knox Swede. And I got a problem getting this guy. But we've been down this road before with the other guy. And it didn't work out. So hopefully this will work out. Nick, you know him. So I haven't got a problem with that. And we'll see, definitely. And last thing Mike If you want to go down 59 highway on 70th and see the way the five rocket is doing the ditches They look pretty good. You gotta go down there. Look at them. They're doing a heck of a job But anyway, that's all I got Mike so appreciate it, okay Yeah, you might go down or look at them they look really nice they're doing a good job I

I was impressed. That's the same company that's doing it over there buying.

Well, the ones that Jim Bates is griping about.

They're the same outfit. Yeah. Yes, sir. Okay.

Okay.

Thanks, Mark. Okay. Thank you.

Wow. 230. 222.

okay no you have sorry i said i was done um we have an additional if it's okay with you um interview tomorrow at two right after the one we're doing for the same department are you able to say for that sure yeah okay perfect i didn't write that down that's the first one all right we figured it would be the best timing so we don't have to reschedule Perfect.

Thank you very much. Yep. Okay. So, 2027 budget. So it sounds like maybe in a couple of weeks we'll have... Hard numbers. The revenue side. Then as far as... When the department heads give you their budgets, when are they giving you budgets? Because we're going to get them the 28th, the 22nd. So then are you plugging those in? No? Okay.

Not yet. Not yet? I don't even have the workbooks from the state.

Okay.

So those usually come about mid-June.

First week of June. First week of June.

Yeah, the budget's coming pretty quick. Okay, then the next thing is a moratorium for the database, or data center. So there's a lot of talk right now about data centers.

I am.

Yeah, me too. Emails, calls.

Do you want to pass that to Chester? Sure. Some of the key concerns that I've seen around for databases, data centers are, I'm sorry, I keep saying databases. Data centers are essential for modern technology, but they raise several significant concerns for local communities. The main issues include rising electricity rates, excessive water use, and various environmental impacts. So these are the things that I think that the county really has some concerns with that we need to kind of step back and study. I think also this is so new that you know how this is all going to you know progress that if we pass a moratorium and be able to have at least a year or so to study these and see how how things are going to play out so one concern is they use so much electricity that then the local residents their electricity increases their prices so how would we handle that And then water use, which is a concern for me because Compared to a lot of places in Kansas, we do have a lot of water. So that might attract maybe some data centers here, which could be concerned. But I don't know if we have 5 million gallons a day to just give to a data center. That's what some of them, 3 to 5 million gallons. So I think we have to remember also that we are an agricultural-based county. And this is what they said at the conference. agriculture starvation stinks so we need to make sure that we keep agriculture first as far as you know how we use our water and then the environmental impacts like air pollution noise pollution light pollution and that we don't use our land and in a negative way because I think the land that you have should be continued to be used for agricultural like it's has been in our history so I think passing a moratorium really is best thing for Neosho County and we can continue to study this and see what you know what comes of this and see I know there's a lot of counties that are in cities that have a lot of concern and something new kind of in Kansas other county or other states like Texas and Utah such have kind of got a lot of data centers compared to us right now. So Brett has put together a moratorium.

Commissioners, I had a lady call me up, and she more or less said all this to me. But she said there was a county up north that they had to ration the residents' water. But I talked to Commissioner Blair from Crawford County. He's on the regional planning committee with us. And he said they're putting one in Pittsburgh because the commissioners have no control.

Well, also with LaBette County, with the nuclear generation, one of the concerns is are they doing that for the data center? You know, that's going to attract more because we're going to have more electricity available also. That's a good question. So do you want to maybe highlight the main points you think that we need in a moratorium?

Basically, I've structured this somewhat based on the solar moratorium. I did go into a little more detail on what each type of facility would cover. The proposed one that I've sent out covers data centers, nuclear power generation facilities, hydrogen-based energy facilities, and or battery energy storage systems. Any of those are good. Yeah, that's good, Brett. Basically, I set it up just as we did with our other moratorium that we would basically suspend any acceptance or any actions upon any type of application or permit, basically any type of solicitation for any kind of development of any of those facilities. I also request out the language event to cover not just facilities, but things like surveys, basically any kind of water usage analysis, anything that would go into developing these particular items for these particular facilities.

So I think one other thing that we wanted to add that we didn't have in the last moratorium was transparency. A lot of these cities and counties are doing things behind doors or in executive session, and they come out and it's like, guess what? We're getting the data center. But yet you don't even know who the company is that they're dealing with. And so we want to be transparent. Everything is going to be done in open session, and we want to know who we're dealing with.

And we can put that in the moratorium, but you can also just insist on that with anybody.

Right. So I just I want that to be I think upfront too because there's a lot of deals being made about and it affects the citizens and so So I don't know if we want to print that out and have everyone read it.

I don't really want to leave today without a moratorium in place.

I just think it's important because it's coming. We can make some extra copies of that and take a brief break, have everybody read over it.

Okay, I think Chastity has the email. We haven't changed it.

No. I noticed a couple things. His little errors, but... Do you want to take a 10-minute break then?

Yeah, I need a break. I need to make a phone call anyway. Commissioner, I appreciate that.

I'll make a motion that we recess until 2.40.

Okay, I'll second the motion.

All those in favor? Aye.

Motion carried.

Alright, we're back in session. Okay. So now we all have a copy of the moratorium. Which, sorry. At this point, you know, we might learn more things as we go, but arrest the resolution can always be changed changed or a new one put in place that's better but I think putting something in place at this point is really important so do we have a number yes and so this one states that it'll remain in effect for a year so june 1st right i think at this point let's we've got it printed let's do one year and let's let's continue to study this and see how things progress uh in the area and as we learn more i think that we can always amend that So I'll make a motion that we adopt Resolution R26E, providing a temporary moratorium on the acceptance of applications relating to the establishment, operation, or expansion of data centers, nuclear power generator facilities, hydrogen-based energy facilities, and battery energy storage systems within the unincorporated areas of Neosho County.

I'll second it.

Any more discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Motion carried.

Would be a lot of people happy about that.

So I would like to then continue to have. Do we just want to call it alternative energy sources and unfinished business and continue to study this issue or do you just want to put data centers alternative energy and just use yeah continue to look into that and we can still also we have wind and solar already in place I know Allen County is expanding their solar I'm sorry their wind and they have a data center also already started it's in the process of being built it's real small Do you know any details on that? Like who's doing it or what is the purpose? I haven't seen anything in the paper.

I'll call up John and ask him what's going on up there.

So anyway, I appreciate that. And thank you, Brett, for getting that. And then that will be on the website, correct? Yes, resolutions. We put resolutions on there. So if someone wants to look at that resolution, it will be on there. I think so all right I wanted to let you guys know also that we received our million dollar payment from Liberty so that's due around the 10th of May and so that did come in just always happy to see that so we just got April financials but here's my little one-page cheat sheet

Thank you.

So as you can see, this would be 33.34% of our budget after four months. And so I think things are looking really well. Departments are, I think, really close to that. So we can tell. I don't think we're over budget. I think that so far it's looking pretty good. So I'm happy with those figures there. Our courthouse general is even within budget, so that's good. Okay, I know this last week we were contacted about the 24 audit, and I believe everyone Had a chance to see that. That's in the packets. Okay. We did get a final audit. I did talk to the auditor this morning. I did go over a couple of concerns that I had. He did look them over again and made some corrections. I'm very happy with the audit. And this 24 was done by previous clerk and treasurer. And I think I'm just ready to go forward with 25, get it done as soon as we can. And that's kind of how the auditor felt. He didn't feel like there was any really big red flags with 24. Probably the biggest thing was the bank reconciliations. So we're going to be working on that. And he's still, I think, you know, trying to work with Gabby on that. So I think right now, I think we just need to approve the 24 audit as presented. This will be on the state website. I don't know, do we put that on our website also? We can temporarily. It would be nice for people to see that. But I think right now we're just moving forward. It really was a pretty clean audit. So and our funds look... Really good. So I'll make a motion that we approve the 24 audit as presented from our auditor.

I'll second the motion.

Any more questions? Comments? All those in favor? Aye. Motion carried. Thanks. And I think everyone's signed off on that.

Yes. Yep.

I think that's basically what I had.

Only thing I had, I had multiple calls on our winner. We were having our next tax sale. So I got ahold of Kelly Law Office, Keita Kelly in Topeka. Who did our last one. Last one. And she submitted a new contract of agreement. As soon as we can get this signed and back, they have a kind of a temporary list already developed We just need to go through the agreement which is pretty much the same except like a $50 per listing increase. And it's been what two or three years since it did actually because it took over a year for the last one. This way we will be at the first of the year not the end of the year.

So do we know what years this is for?

They're going to go as maximum as they can to be current. Okay. So up to 22, I think, because 23 won't be done until the end of October for notification, because once it's served, once it goes through the notification, that's 45 days after that, that's all it has. So it's pushing the September final abstract to where it won't be available.

Okay.

And I think she did a great job, and that brought in a lot of money.

Yes.

By the list I've seen, there's just about as many properties as there was in the last. And I've been contacted, St. Paul and correspondence from St. Paul and City, because they were looking to see if they could do their own.

Oh.

Because I guess it's a schnooze mowing and absorbing that amount of properties.

I know a guy here years ago that said he was charging to mow his yard because he lived in Pittsburgh. He came over and sprayed it with Roundup.

On this order, do we need to order?

Okay. And accept your contract. Okay.

It looked like the same email I had previous.

Are you going to sign it?

No. Your name is on here. Your name is on here. I think she just copied her old name.

I know. She just assumed you were always the chairman.

No, no. We can do that. You can sign it. i would make the motion to approve board order for 2026 an order of board of county commissioners county kansas approved during the regular course of business day on the day of may 19th yes Pursuant to KSA 79-2801, directing Kelly Law Office to initiate tax foreclosure on properties subject to delinquent tax liens. It so be ordered on the 19th of May, 2026.

I'll second the motion.

Any more discussion? So have you talked to the treasurer at all about this? Is she on board? Oh yeah. She's ready to help her out. Okay. Just wanted to make sure.

They've had conversations.

Good. Okay. As long as she's included in it. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carried.

And then approval of the contract between New York County and keep saying that, Kelly Law Office for services provided for the tax sale.

I'll second it. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carried. Do we want to can we get this with my name on it and the right dates and then I'll come in and sign it? Since we've approved it. Okay. I'll be here tomorrow.

Yeah, I want my name.

You did all the work.

My wife, you know, are you sending it back to her?

I think you would when she signs it or have Gabby.

Yeah, I mean, she can correct it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That'd be fine with the corrections.

Okay, good. right we have well oh that's what this was okay i'll give that back to you so do we want to talk about this no we can um do you need to go any executive session Yeah, I just always want Brett to know what we're going into. Okay, I'll move to recess into executive session to discuss matters deemed privileged to the attorney-client relationship regarding maintenance for 10 minutes to include the commission and counsel, and we will come back in 10 minutes, which will be, we'll say 3.05.

I'll second the motion.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

trust me that's why you're holding on

Okay we're back in session and no action was taken.

Okay, our next meeting is next week, believe it or not, because someone messed with the agenda. So we are meeting at 10 o'clock, correct, for work session? Yep. For budget. And then our regular meeting is at 1 o'clock. And then the next meeting, because of Memorial Day and everything, we're not meeting again until?

16th. Right.

Yes. The 16th. So there's about three weeks in between there. So at least we will have the budget numbers from the departments during that time to kind of look over.

We'll have to do evaluations on the 16th.

So then on the 16th we come back at 10 o'clock again to do evaluations for our department heads, and then we have a regular meeting at 1 o'clock. Yep. So in the meantime also, I believe that we're starting department head training. Huh? June 3rd. Every Wednesday from 1 to 4. So this department had leadership. Another county is doing kind of the same thing with somebody else, but they're calling it Stronger Together. So maybe we should like our Stronger Together meetings. We'll start on Wednesday, so that'll be good. And we'll go 15 weeks. So a lot going on. I think that's all.

I didn't bring this up earlier, but at the regional planning committee the other day, we talked to a new commissioner from Bourbon County. And John and Chris and I kind of quoted him about what he was thinking about the judicial center over there. And we had another commissioner come over to one of our meetings. And he went back to them. And they got a lot of information they didn't know about. And he said that they're putting it on hold right now.

Yeah.

So I think they're going to stay in. Montgomery County got out.

Yes.

But there's a couple of commissioners thinking they'll be back. But I think at least we don't lose both of them. Mike's trying to work things out. I think we'll be all right. Yeah. And he's hustling to try to get a couple more counties to come in to make up.

That are actually using. The center.

Yes, we've got a lot of out of county.

Yeah, so we really just need to become members or whatever.

Yeah, our district.

And so far, we're within budget. So that's good as what it's costing us this year.

Yeah, they brought a lot of money in last month from outside our district. But that's all I have. I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Motion carried. See everyone next week.

Yes, ma'am.