Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the meeting to order.

We'll do the flag salute. And Tyson, I have the key words.

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.

Your reminders before we get going. Please state your name and title when you first begin speaking. Public comment will be allowed to extend to the topic. Persons participating via Zoom are currently muted. If you have a comment, then please let Mark know via the chat function. Mark will then inform Chairman Trinkle to take up the comment in a manner that doesn't disrupt the agenda. And if an executive session is needed, then we'll mute and turn off the video, and when we're done, we'll turn everything back on.

Heather, are you there?

I am. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay, I have a few things today. The first is the Department of Commerce last week released county median wages, which are a good indication of wages increasing across the state, but also the county median wage is used at both the state and local level for incentive packages, depending on how much above the county median wage an employer pays, sets the amount of incentives they would get. So in Pratt, the median wage last year was $18.76 per hour, and this year it increased to $20 an hour is the median wage in Pratt County. That's a 6.14% increase, which is a really big increase compared to other counties across the state. that could be due to a couple of things maybe labor shortages in a couple of categories or um it also could just be a labor shortage across the whole state the six percent increases i would say in the upper half of across the states increases but pratt is still below the median Income in a number of our surrounding counties. Reno is above. Just for example, Reno County was at 2152. Kingman County was at 2191. Barbara County 2165 Barton 2075. So still lagging some of our surrounding counties, but definitely a 6% increase is a lot. So I wanted to pass that along, certainly moving the right direction. in terms of household income. Also, last week, I forgot to say this. I think I texted one of you about it. Kansas has rural health incentive dollars that were created out of the Big Beautiful Bill. Kansas is getting a lot. We're talking millions and millions of dollars for the next five years each year. into Kansas really focused on improving health care in rural areas for things that are one time expenses. So the hospital got some of those monies, but there are various pots of money that people are going to have to apply for. None of it is just a guaranteed anybody gets anything. And so there have been health care providers and colleges who have gotten money. Health care providers have gotten money directly. But I wanted to call your attention to a currently open pot of money. And again, these pots are going to open from time to time over the next five years. The pot of money that is currently open for which obviously any provider in the county could apply for, but certainly the health department and EMS department could also apply for. is rural tech innovative technology funds those funds can go for and ideally one-time expenses because right this is an ongoing funding these are one-time funds that can upgrade any sort of patient-facing technology or automate any system that makes the delivery of health care more efficient so whether that being some sort of billing portal, some sort of IT, video conferencing, health systems, things like that, would encourage you to encourage both the health department and the EMS department to look at those funds. There's a lot of funds going to be available, again, one time, but certainly if you had some sort of billing system or health record system, electronic health records, it would be worth trying to apply for those funds. So again, that is both for private and public rural health providers. The PAEDC met last week. I wasn't able to attend, but they had eight people who came to the meeting related to the housing incentive grant. Again, the housing incentive grant will kick off as soon as all of the neighborhood revitalization forms are signed and approved by the Attorney General's office. Also, at that meeting, they reviewed existing projects. including the one from great plains alfalfa unfortunately have not made much progress with department of commerce on the hpip for extension for great plains i did receive um the explanation of the delay a key piece of equipment was just received in may and the electricians are working on that so still need to try to get an extension for them um pretty significant cost will be incurred if they do not get that extension for that project. But they will also be done with their PADC incentive application or their incentive performance in September about the time they're looking for the extension. So that was also discussed. I think the last thing that I have today is related oh i mentioned the related to the rural health the last thing i have is there the state is doing a statewide uh study related to child care both availability but also how much people are paying and how much it's costing to deliver those services and so um just wanted you to be aware in case anybody hears of the state asking a bunch of questions about the cost of child care that is a legitimate study they're going to use it to determine how much child care costs to actually provide versus how much the market is willing to bear in terms of paying. I'm not sure what they're going to do with the results, but that was also something I wanted to pass along to you all. With that, I'm happy to stand for any questions.

Hey, Heather, on the median wage thing, is that a report you got with graphs and maps and all that?

It's a table, yeah. I can forge you it.

Could you forward it to me? Yes.

I'll forward it to Sasha so she can forward it out to everybody.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. On the health bill, who do they get a hold of? The KDHE?

Yeah, the Kansas Department of Health Environment actually has a Rural Health Transformation page where they'll list all of the grants. There's also a place to sign up. I'd recommend people sign up so that they can be notified when those grant awards are opening. there's a rather short window of time to apply. So I think that that would be the best thing to do. But again, that's a really good opportunity to get some upgraded technology.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Heather.

Bob, you want to come on up?

Oh, thank you very much for seeing me today. My name is Bob Webmore. I'm executive co-director of Great Plains Development. We cover the 28 counties of Southwest Kansas. And in the old, old days, actually, it hasn't been that old. We help with the microloan fund, the county loan fund. We'll also get calls about the other loan funds that are available in the area. We wear another hat besides the loan hat because we work closely with the banks, and I'll tell you about that in a minute. We wear another hat with grants. So when the small communities, like all the ones I have listed on here, there's too many to even say out loud, have a need, or we look for... Most of these funds that are available for small communities like that are what we call low to moderate income funds, CDBG, community development block grants. So we're the folks that forever and ever have written those grants, helped monitor them, take them all the way through to the end. Our job is whenever you have a need, in fact, if you get into a work session or you get request from one of them for something, just holler at us because we can either by Zoom or phone or in person, we can say, hey, this might be available, this might not. Even if the community is not low to moderate income and on the list, we may be able to survey and particularly if it's like a special group. So let's say for mental health care, I'm just gonna make it up, there's a behavioral health need for a little office somewhere or some type of a program, we might be able to survey just the recipients or the people that would benefit from that. The reason I say targeted is because can you see how if we were to do like a county fire truck or something that benefits the whole county, we'd have to qualify the whole county. What are the chances of us qualifying the county at 51% low to moderate income and getting 100% return on the surveys? Probably it's not going to happen. But can you see where we can do a small community? We'll do 50%. 100, 200 people, we can usually get a good return. So FYI, as you go through that, if you get requests, holler at us. Question I've never asked, I don't think. Do you have separate fire districts out there at all? You do?

Yeah.

Cool. Department of Commerce has changed things over the years. We used to have a lot of requests for fire trucks and equipment and that. Know that depending on the Department of Commerce okay I didn't say this who's in charge and what programs are effective at the time there may or may not be things like that available so water sewer streets uh for sure we used to have about a dozen categories but they've squeezed those down so just know if you get into something you know other things that we've talked about out loud like With Heather, when we had the gas distribution issue and there were going to be communities left out, we were doing plotting and planning with that. Is there a way we can qualify a small community for something to help with that? Now that we got so desperate, I don't even remember where it was. It was down in Clark County along the border. I'll think about that. Small community of 70. We had gas distribution problems down there. We finally gave up and did propane conversion for everybody that had natural gas. So those types of projects are still out there. They're not as big as they used to be, but we can usually find something. And it may mean working with KDH&E. It may mean working even with KDOT or some of those programs that have little pieces out there that we can go out and actually do so that's always there on the loan side of things now that we work with the banks regular regular regular all the time all of them uh locally in fact I can't really disclose some of the ones we did but we did some recently that I know you're really happy about because that helped change hands for some things that some retail restaurant beverage type businesses that you're used to so the fact that the banks we work with the banks and they know we're here they'll just give us a call and you know we'll work with anybody from peoples or legacy or fusion anybody that's needs us and then the other thing you may not be aware of is your local banks may do out of county projects with like kingman or down in barber county so we work with them down there too even though it's up here it's actually down there so we we do that a lot there are and i just wanted to draw your attention to the changes in the program and that even we have trouble keeping track of all these grant loan programs this is as best as we can do it's a good old-fashioned piece of paper uh we do have it on our website but this is easy because we can keep it really current if you have something or somebody asks you a question It's there. Don't try to remember all this. Just call us and let us know and we'll give you the answers. Well, a good example is like Network Kansas, those companion funds that we've been doing locally, like Chamber will get a request for companion funds that will send it through Network Kansas. The bank will get a request for a loan for companion funds. All those Network Kansas funds are available. Barbara County came in as a Network Kansas eCommunity. I think probably this year Pratt County will too. What does that mean? That means they get to lean on us and say, can you help us with that? It's like, sure, we'll help anyhow. And we'll look at what Network Kansas funds. In fact, the ones that we did last year were all Network Kansas partner funds. Banks come first. Our job is just the bank says we need help. Or the borrower comes along and says, Hey, I, I called network Kansas and they sent me to you guys in Dodge city. Why am I calling you in Dodge? Like, because we help with those funds here in Pratt. So those are all available right down to the little tiny communities out there. So we occasionally get a bar that says we need some help. They're eligible for those funds. As long as we can find a bank form, we can also help get them to the bank. We don't pick a bank form, but they'll say, Hey, do you know Clay or do you know Jason or do you know someone like, like, sure. So that's how we do that. Things have been in flux over the last couple of years. So we're kind of flowing, going with the flow, just so you know, all of these programs are changing day to day, week to week, month to month. So we're trying to keep track of that. Anything else on my list? you you folks have been tremendously supportive over the years of course been busy here over the years going on we've been busy last fall it's really quiet right now it's it's not as busy as normal knock on wood but a lot of things are in play i mean the ag market is tough right now so yeah cash flow is tough any questions or anything we appreciate your voluntary support if you would consider it for another year Again, they're voluntary dues. Your 3030.08, $3,030.08, which is a county population from the Kansas statistical abstract of 89.12 by 34 cents per capita. So that makes your dues $3,030. If you would consider that for another year, we appreciate that. By the way, we're hiring people. We're looking for two grant administrators and one that can be a grant loan administrator. And our associate director is doing fantastic. Hannah's been there six years. We got her a scholarship. She's the only one in the state that got a scholarship to travel with our national association to go visit other regions like us in Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska. She knows more than Faye and I do. Faye and I just do the day-to-day stuff. She knows the big picture. So if you have any questions, let me know. In fact, speaking of that National Association, you guys can keep a copy of that. That explains there's eight regions like us across the state. There they all are. We're part of that. So it's very brief.

Questions? Thoughts? You know that question, but it's probably not for you.

This is in our budget, right?

We pay it yearly.

We pay it yearly. It comes out of submission loan.

It comes out of submission loan? OK. Yeah.

OK. Yeah. I was thinking that would be good.

Yeah. OK. Now you guys do good work. Yep.

Thank you. And we're here. 44 years now. I was trying to count the year. It's 44 years. And even before I did this 16 years ago, think of me as economic development chamber for Ford County and Dodge City. And then even before that, on those boards, but not actually a paid person. We were working with Great Plains Clearback when I moved here in 1990. It's been a long time.

I remember when I got home, we were doing COVID loans.

There's a lot. You should see the project list that we have. Thank you.

I'll make a motion to sign the Great Plains Development Membership Agreement for $3,030.08.

I'll second the motion. We've moved and seconded. We signed the Great Plains Development Agreement for $3,030.08. $30.08. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carried. That's fine.

The fact that it's not rounded off means I am a co-director, and my co-director, she said, I'm not going to round them off. I'm like, but I would round them off. That's the difference between they and I. I'll round it off, they said, but it's not accurate. I have two of them because I'm going to turn one over to the lady that needs a sign. And we don't have to make a photo cut. I've been doing this a long time.

Okay. I appreciate it. Not a problem.

And that's yours.

Our purpose.

Thank you. Thank you. And if you have anything, just holler, but you know that. Thank you. I'll go visit the banks now.

Have fun. I do. Thanks.

Keep them straight. I try. Ma'am, you want to come up?

Yeah, absolutely. Good afternoon. Samantha Misbit with NextEra Energy Resources. Brought some cards for everyone so you all have my contact information going forward. I'm here to discuss the project known as Nunesca thermal storage. But the name is a little misleading because that's really what NextEra's responsibility is, is constructing of the tie line that's going from the substation, which is co-located with the wind project going up into the Antora facility and capacity limits correct so reason for coming here today is just one wanting to continue what both Cody and I had set out to and keep the line of communication open between us and the county on Friday I had a great conversation with both Tanner and John from Kirk and Michaels just going over the road use agreement going over what we set out for I had our project management engineer on the call to go over some of the hall routes that were like perspective from overlap of the solar and the storage project and going over what the expectation is moving forward. So starting off with some good alignment there and just wanted to um open up the floor to the county for any questions or any things to consider as we move forward because i know this was brought up we had the road use agreement signed about two years ago so um i know it's been a while since it's come up again so just wanted to be here for some questions from you guys so this is the transmission line correct that you're putting up yep underground okay yep underground yes correct correct storage is all

The ethanol plant's property, which is in the city's three mile. So we already signed all the zoning. No zoning. It's in the city's three mile. So the ethanol plant, the actual battery store or the thermal storage is located on the ethanol, which is in the city's three mile. Oh, this is going to be. This is the one I'm talking about.

Okay. The one I thought was canceled and now it's back on.

Yes.

And we signed that road use agreement in December or November 24th. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

You guys need to slow down here.

I know. And then they're all named the same thing, too.

Yes. I heard it had been canceled, and then you guys heard somebody had brought it back.

Yeah, then it got brought back. And, again, our involvement is just for the tie line of it. Antara is doing the actual facility, and that's within the city limits.

Okay. And when do you expect to start that?

yeah so i had some conversations with tanner and john on that we're expecting some deliveries to start sometime in mid-august with then construction starting in september and expected to be finished by december so are you using the lay down yard out there for that or that is the current plan we're probably going to be utilizing that area yeah okay yeah tanner had emailed me early last week so i'm glad he got with you so

they're going to do a pre-construction inventory, the same thing they've done and everything. And then timeline that works out for you guys. They can get it done.

Yeah. We're trying to have some overlap as well with like, while they're still out there to do like the scoping for what currently is for the roads. But, um, they're going to work with our engineers to, to time that all out, but no problems identified as of, as of Friday's meeting.

And I hadn't heard anything since then.

Throw you a curveball. Do you know anything about the repower? Because I saw Kirk and Michael down in my neck of the woods surveying. Are they getting ready to do that too?

So I don't believe for the Prattwind repower. I don't believe that they've done, that we've kicked off that just yet. We're still working together and putting the permitting package and everything. Which is good. I don't know. the fella adam jones patrick senator pretty detailed response in response to alan's email to us yeah we're working at the work i'm just trying we're working through that list and getting that permanent package together for y'all thank you sounds good yeah any questions i don't have any all right thank you all for your time appreciate it and see you all soon yep thank you guys again yeah i've got your numbers

Have a good flight back then.

Thanks again. Take care. Have a good one out.

Things have really changed. She flew up here this morning just for this.

Yeah. Well, it's good. He was supposed to be here last week. Yeah, for a couple of things. But why didn't

i think they were going to stay till this monday okay gotcha he got stuck in an airport somewhere so yeah i'm going to say i could knock out one thing i got uh i'd request a 10-minute executive session for a tournament by our privilege to discuss opioid-related litigation i'll make that motion

oh second we're moving in second to go into executive session for 10 minutes to discuss returning client to discuss opioid just settlements all in favor say aye aye opposed same sign motion carry just accept it i'll make a motion we come out of the second position that we don't actually take them i'll say it we move in second and we come out of executive session with no action taken all in favor say aye aye opposed same sign we're back in open session i'm going to make a motion to withdraw from the amended opioid litigation second it moved in second that we withdraw from the national Opioid litigation. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. We're withdrawing.

Just for the public's benefit, that withdrawal only relates to two pharmacy benefit managers that Pratt County doesn't have contact with, and it's on the advice of their National Litigation Council for withdrawal.

I'm glad you explained that because I was trying to think of how to do that. It's not, we're not dropping the national. We're dropping the PGU.

I'm going to do some of the road crossing.

I'll make a motion to approve a road crossing permit for Haviland Telephone, Northwest 40th Street, Township 27, R15, Section 13 and 14.

Second the motion. Moved and seconded, we do a road crossing permit for Haviland Telephone on the description Rick read. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say sign. Motion carried.

Mary is gone this afternoon and we don't have her basket. I'm going to go get that so we don't forget it.

Oh. Well, we paid last week. We may not have it. I think she does.

There was something that popped up there.

Oh, yeah. The lock. Yeah.

That's OK. We'll get it. We have a mask. Thank you, sir. Do you know where the basket is?

Probably on our desk.

We had a couple maintenance requests. Do you give Crystal a dollar every time she finds it? I do not.

I think that she is just coming across them and saw some progress and was like, let's get it while the getting's good.

One of the single door in the courtroom, which we kind of already discussed.

Yes. And Terry got me when he was here and he said, was pretty bad with opening but it should be a pretty easy fix okay and this is the light fixture in the women's bathroom is not working are you guys peeing in the dark yeah it probably hasn't been working for who knows how long oh it hasn't who knows i mean probably oh well terry look at that too he has not this was new this morning okay i just have you have him look at both yeah okay thank you mark and if he can't fix it then we'll call him

do we need to sign all these and do all that make a motion we repaired the single door and the courtroom was getting stuck and apparently a light fixture in the women's bathroom that hasn't worked in centuries that could be anything they moved in second and we approved the maintenance updates in the courthouse

for the courthouse door and a light fixture in the bathroom. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carried.

I will tell you, Jeff and I came in to finish up our, we did some routine upstairs and the moving stuff around, and he was super impressed with our hot water.

Was he? Yeah. Yeah, that probably works better on cleaning out your paper.

It does.

Catherine, you come on up.

How's everybody doing today?

Pretty good.

Yeah. Okay. So just a few things to add today and then I'll go through, um, A new law that was just passed. So the 2024 Chevy Malibu that we purchased last year was moved to the duty station in Anthony. And unfortunately, it was literally the day that they had that huge storm come through. So it just beat that. Such a pretty car, too. Took out the entire back windshield, cracked the front, and it's just littered. with like tons of hail. So we'll have to go through insurance to, so we're going to work on getting it up here. Well, and it was moved because I'm like getting ready to like purchase a vehicle. So I was like switching them around so I could trade out an older vehicle. And unfortunately it just happened. Well, you're really lucky that they had a business there. could take it and actually put it in their building to protect it since the entire back windshield it was just shattered completely so it was really nice of them okay and let's see so i had a question i have let's see how old it is i have a looks like a i think it's like a 2011 order Maybe step forward. It gets really confusing. We have five vehicles. Sometimes confusing for me. It's a 2014 Chevy Malibu and the air conditioning just died. It has something like 120,000 miles on it. So it's probably only worth maybe 1200, maybe 3000. So I was trying to decide, is there some, I guess, does the county have some way to like put something up for auction to like, because I was hoping maybe I could get a better price on an auction site as opposed to a dealership. Yeah, because they have to do the markup to be able to make a profit. I wasn't, because the cost of the, it's possible depending upon what's wrong with it, the cost, of the actual peers for the air conditioning could be worth more than just the car's worth.

Doug has used Purple Wave in the past. Doug in the road department. He would be the person to talk to.

Okay. And then, yeah, they'll put it on there.

And they follow the statutory notice stuff. So with that amount, it's not going to matter anyway.

So, I mean, it could be something simple, too.

Yeah, that's not been our luck.

That's been on my phone.

So with the grant process, from my understanding, what essentially happens is whatever is whatever we get for the vehicle, instead of the county having to cover anything, just that amount, which is just what the vehicle is worth. Just gets transferred into the grant that we have now, and I just have to notify Katie OC and they'll subtract that amount from current year expression.

Because usually when we put it up, then the general fund, and then we get.

We get received it into the general, it depends on where it was coming.

I think it has in the past, but really it should be put in as a reimbursement back into whatever fund it came out of. And I think maybe it. It hasn't passed. It was always just put into the general fund.

And then I think they moved it from there.

Yeah, I think I think it's supposed to be like reimbursed, like put in as a reimbursement instead of like a miscellaneous deposit. Be put in as a reimbursement back into the funding came out of to better practice.

Yeah.

That makes sense. Yeah. And that would be me who you'd be working with to get that into where it would. So whatever one of your funds that you work at split or however you need to do that to show. You would just have it be put in back as a, however the state wants to see it expressed. Okay. Whether it's like a deposit back into the cash or a reimbursement back in there against this year's budget. Okay. However you want to.

It's such a small amount because one year they basically said, and it was equipment, and they basically said, it's too little. We don't really care. Stick it in your reimbursement. And our reimbursement is separate from the grant funds. So I'll have to check with them to decide. and let them make the decision about what's most appropriate but i'm thinking if it's 1500 it's going to be enough for that threshold to actually have to go back into grant funds but whatever the process is we'll we'll follow it okay so good so for the last thing that i have right now um has anyone i guess spoken with um with you all about um hb 2329 I don't know if you're familiar with it. It just passed.

You're going to have to tell me.

I can't keep the numbers. Okay. So it is the bill that kind of rewrites how we deal with juvenile offenders. It kind of puts old law back into play. Everything changed back. We had juvenile reform in Kansas, and we were one of the first states in the entire United States to do that, where we didn't put juvenile offenders into like out of home placement where they could sit in a basically a residential facility similar to what like older youth might if their child needed care cases but these were specifically just juvenile offenders you could put a juvenile offender back in the day into a facility like that that was governed by originally JJA the juvenile justice authority and later became KDOC And they could be in that facility for two, three years, four years, up to 18. And in some special cases, up to 2021. Yeah. So this law specifically, the reason I wanted to bring it to everyone's attention is it extends the period that courts can actually place a juvenile in actual detention. And because courts are doing it in a specific county is like taking that role. The county has to pay for that youth in detention. Um, so it was originally set up and this, an old law still is kind of there. Um, when it comes to youth that could serve like a probation violation term, um, cumulative at the most could be 45 days. So it's like spread out during a case length limit, which is anywhere from like six months, nine months up to like a year, three years of probation. depending upon the offense and the risk level. So with the new system in a way it's set up, you could do it 30 consecutive days up to 90 cumulative. So that could mean, and it's expensive that basically any youth that fails probation could be placed into custody up to a 90 day sentence in detention. So the expectation is that youth would have to have like committed a new offense instead of just not following probation. And it's kind of, because it gets tested periodically, like I know some courts want things to work a certain way, but from my understanding, it has to be during that case length limit, no matter what. So during that six month sentence, if they end up doing half of it in a detention facility, like Reno County Detention, Pratt County pays for it. The other thing that, isn't brand new and it's been on the books since 2018 is KDOC was required to have 30 to 45 non-sync beds, non-foster care beds available that youth could be placed in. So it was kind of the old law where you could put a youth who had some sync tendencies but was a juvenile offender in a non-foster care bed in a residential facility. So you brought it back now and a youth can be placed in a non-sync residential facility for 90 days and KTOC has to pay for it. So they're planning on essentially setting up for contracting for those beds with like local facilities that exist unless they're like new ones that pop up that can meet all those expectations. Sometime we're not really sure how long. it didn't happen back in 2018 because no funding was attached to it, but they're moving money from evidence-based practices into this. And I think it's like 4.5 million now. So, um, we're probably looking at youth being out of home for longer periods of time, long-term. I don't know what that's going to look like, but, um, at least on the detention side, that expense is going to be passed on to counties. And on the other side, it's supposed to be passed on to the state, but there are no policies, there are no standards, there's nothing written. And the law is very vague. So for example, with youth that go on court services versus community corrections, they have to be moderate to high risk. And that's that risk tool that we use. It's based off of past events for the last 12 months and lifetime events and then based off of that and the crime that you commit either you go on probation with community corrections court services for a short length of time or you can go into a correctional facility for a few months up until you're 22 and you know half years old so with this new system that they have we're we don't really know what's going to happen there's a lot that's not really written and That 90 day sentence, there's no criteria set up for that. So it could be any youth that commits a crime.

Four years ago, they'd do that 90 days or whatever it was, but then they'd have hearings every 30 days and the judge might say, okay, we're putting you back on probation at that time. And he wouldn't do the full 90. Is that still possible with this? There's nothing written. Okay, that's what I figured. They have no idea what they're doing.

So I think they, because I've been, you know, I've kind of talked about this before, that there's a very small population of youth that are out of control. And either they're youth that are very pro-criminal behavior, they really believe that it's cool when they watch, like, what's that one cop show, Bad Boys or something like that? I can't remember now. Um, and they want to emulate that criminal. It's a very, that's very few kids and there's, they're gonna be lifers. We're gonna see them committing new crimes until they die, however long that is. But for the other small population, it's usually youth that have some sync tendencies. Some of the, you know, there may or may not be problems in the family. Um, there may not just be family members to like help care for them, but they, They had very strong, significant mental health problems. They're the youth that end up going on disability and they can't function to keep a job. Those youth now are just going to go on residential facilities and just sit there. So there's nothing talked about what kind of programming is required to be provided to them. They just have to be evidence-based, whatever that means at this point. And it's such a short period. I don't know how you're supposed to help a youth that's out of control like that and fix the situation, because they're not providing any services to the family. There's nothing attached to that. The last thing on this, but I'm going to take up too much time, is actually two more things. So the other thing on this bill is any youth that has a juvenile intake event, so law enforcement contacts juvenile intake, in situations where they have a child in need of care situation, they have a runaway, a youth from like another state they don't know anything about, or an actual juvenile offender. And law enforcement believes that maybe this youth is really appropriate for detention. They'll give us a call. Most of the time, if it's something like they stole a candy bar, they're not going to call juvenile intake. And a lot of times, really simple things where there's no victim, nothing really happened, but it's still a criminal offense in Kansas. They'll do kind of like a long form, and they'll do a notice to appear. So that's not changed. What has changed is beginning July 1st, when a youth comes into juvenile intake, so law enforcement calls us and says, I have a youth, and it's a juvenile offender, and this is the situation. If they have a second intake event after July 1st, they're supposed to immediately go to detention. So we have to contact judges to say, do you want us to place this youth? Is there some other option that you would prefer? Because it's considered an override. And that may or may not, we may end up seeing a lot of youth that are getting locked up. One thing I can say that we've seen an increase in since the pandemic is our juvenile offender situations are going up again. And Pratt County, out of all four counties that we cover, has almost all of the kids on probation, has almost all of the youth that get picked up. Child and Needed Care is pretty consistent with all four counties when it comes to juvenile offender situations. Pratt, I don't know why, I think maybe just the population, I'm not really sure why, but we see more youth get picked up for criminal offenses here than any other county.

Seeing the males come in.

That's about to get a lot worse. So I did build it into our budget and it's not going to be available for every youth if the courts don't think it's appropriate. But after that youth comes to court and has to have a 48-hour detention hearing, at that time our judges have the option of instead of like just leaving them in, placing them on It's kind of like, it's not really house arrest. It's that repath tool that I talked to you about earlier in the year. So we have one alternative detention, and it's only going to be useful in very specific situations. So it's not going to be useful if you have a victim that lives in the same house as that juvenile offender. It won't be useful if it's for a really violent kind of crime. So, it will basically just help in the situations where the statute makes it look like we need to have them continue to be locked up. But there aren't there isn't really a criteria or justification for it. We'll at least have that option so that we're not placing youth unnecessarily detention beds.

Hurry up and build their buildings.

Well, and 1 huge caveat to this is. There are 9 correction there. Sorry. There are nine detention facilities throughout the state. And I think four, five of them, four of those only allow you that are from their community. So all of the facilities allow you to go ahead and basically pay for a bed availability 24-7. 365 days. So there's some counties that will just say, hey, Reno County, we want a bed. We want to go ahead. And even if no one is using it, we're just going to pay for that bed for the entire year. And we've never had to do that before. Most of our youth, we unfortunately will end up having to send them a lot further. And unfortunately, law enforcement in some situations have had to be on the road for nine, 10, 12 hours, moving that kid around, picking them up here and then driving them somewhere else. It's really problematic when they have multiple court hearings and maybe Zoom's not an option. So I know here, at least with one of our youth, they ended up having to use security transport and they're really expensive. So a single, like driving them from like Wellington up to like, I don't know, Wichita and then back again, or to like some other place it's like within an hour to two hours could be a thousand dollars. Um, but you know, with law enforcement positions there, you get really high, highly trained people that, um, are sensible and dependable. They're hard to keep in smaller communities because they can make so much money in places like the city of Wichita that sometimes, unless you sign a contract with them requiring them to stay for a year or two, they can get their certification and just leave. So our places usually really struggle. Our smaller communities really struggle with being able to keep competent law enforcement, unfortunately. that may be another bill to look forward to in the future.

Okay. Well, thanks for the update.

It's definitely Monday news.

So, and out of all, like I said, out of all four counties, Pratt's going to have the biggest responsibility because this is where our youth are now. All right. And that's all I have. OK.

I got good news.

Yes.

It will be a while.

Right. Thanks. Thanks.

Anything quick?

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from June 15th, 2026. I'll second it.

We're moving in second. We approve the minutes from June 15th. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carried.

make a motion we're going into executive session with Jack Golley for a phone call to our attorney discuss the PRMC lease agreement for an hour you say second the motion it moved in second we go into executive session with our attorney and Jack Golley

On PRMC lease all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. We're in executive session for an hour. we'll make a motion we come out of the session without any action second we move in second to come out of executive session with no action taken all in favor say aye aye opposed same sign we're back in open session i request an executive session for attorney client privilege privilege discuss prmc for 15 minutes we'll make that motion also we're going to move to the second and go back into executive session for 15 minutes for attorney-client privilege to discuss PRMC leases. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carried.

I'll make a motion we come out of the session with no action taken.

Second. We move and second. We come out of the executive session with no action taken. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. We're back in open session.

I'll make a motion to approve the Pratt Regional Medical Center. This is for the bonds. Administration fee. Administration fee.

six hundred and twenty five dollars we'll second that motion we moved in second we pay the administration fee for the bonds for prmc all in favor of 625 dollars all in favor say aye aye opposed same sign you don't need to sign that motion carried me make a copy or is it okay if i do this okay i'll be back in a minute do you have anything else i think i'm done for today

I do. OK, we'll wait.

Get the weeds.

Yeah, I got that quote back.

And why he's in there. You sent us that email on. Employee benefits thing. About why it was pulled out of 30.

Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah.

I read that thing like six times. I couldn't track.

I know. I know. That's why I put at the end, like, I know it's a lot. If I can, I tried to break it down.

I'm sure there's something in there.

Yeah. So, so basically in our employee benefits fund, we have several line items and that 39,000 that they're pulling from is just miscellaneous receipting. that's just that one line item well not everything is supposed to go into that line item so it was corrected last year um and put into proper line items and so it's not tracking everything that's being put in there so we're not negative then or are we still making i don't think we were ever negative in employee benefits yeah cash on hand i don't think we are no if we if we I think it was just that one line item.

Just that one line item? Okay.

That was negative, and it is not. The fund is okay. It's just that how I was tracking that changed a little bit. And then Tara was reimbursing us, and then that stopped because it just stays in her fund. And then Catherine's went to a different line item within that fund. And then that overpayment also that looked like we took in money when we didn't. It wasn't put. Yeah, yeah. So it just was a.

I have a question. I don't know if this is something that you and Scott are working on or Scott and April are working on. The employee contributions and the employee benefit in the audit last year shows $39,000. That's what we were talking about. This is going to get fixed in the audit?

So it's not incorrect. That's that email I sent out explaining that big, long email that Rick was saying that he read.

How is it? I guess my question is different. I mean, so if you compare year over year, like the prior year was like 360. We need to account for it the same way, either this way going forward or last year's way going forward. And it would make sense to do it last year's way going forward. So in here, in this final document, it needs to look similar to what it did.

Yeah. So that's what I tried, what I attempted to bring down in that big, long email.

Yeah. Is I get that.

Yeah. They're just pulling from that one miscellaneous receding line. And that's what's in, that's what accounts.

Yeah. Are they gonna pull from somewhere else and correct that is what I'm asking.

I don't think so because that that's what I asked. And I mean, the fund in itself still has like that money is still all contained within that fund. It's just that one miscellaneous receding line item is at that 39. If you, I can, I mean, because that's, I can ask them to correct it. If you would like me to be, please pull from all, which to me is what should be getting done.

Well, that's, what's been done every year before this. That's why I'm asking.

Well, no, that's, it's always been pulled from that one miscellaneous, but everything, but it was putting extra things into it.

So last year, the 24 number was sorry, the 300 and some odd.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So before everything went under that miscellaneous line item, we found out last year when that there was, um, I think it was with noxious weed that only a certain percent by, by, by budget law, only a certain percentage of. Receiving things can come in under miscellaneous.

So they made different line items and move that money.

As long as Scott's okay with it. That's fine.

And I did receive an email back from him. I don't know if he responded at all or just to me, but he said he was going to review that. Yeah. Yeah. All that. Yeah. Make sure, make sure that he understood that. And then I, but I haven't heard back from him yet.

I'm not, it would make more sense.

Well, to me, I think that they should be taking all receiving lines and adding all those together and saying, here's what perhaps the whole, it's still going to be less because we don't have Tara's reimbursement in there anymore. So it's still going to be less. Well, and that overpayment, but it should be, me should be expressed more than that 29. moving chairs over the state's paying us for that right but it all stays within her fund oh i can't go to her because i that was one of the first questions she got a big boost in budget well i asked when i when we did that i said does tara still need to Like reimburse us for the healthcare costs. And he said, no, it's just that less, you know, it, I have one tax. It'll be less that we have on the other side. Right. It's staying with her fund and then being used and not, yeah. Cause that was my first time. I'm like, wait a second.

Where, you know, Scott responds and we're not in it.

Yep.

Absolutely.

Okay, so the weeds. Talking about mulch in some areas.

Some of the items that they're taking care of the weeds, I think probably out front, there's some like trees and stuff growing that they would mulch around. Yeah, she said it would benefit from some mulch just to keep the weeds down so they wouldn't be weeding that every time, but.

so 515 for the mulch and 800 for the first time spraying that's the way i breathe that's the way everybody else reads it and then 150 per month if they spray right you guys want to do that or we at least need i think for that 800 yeah for the spraying yeah uh mulch would probably make things look a little better that's true too it looks good i think we probably do do all of it do all of it okay you just have even half of it yeah achieving what we're really trying to do true i'll make a motion that we have any landscapes Spray for weeds for $800 and also put mulch around various places for $515. Not to exceed $515.

Second that motion. We're moving in second to have uni lawn scapes do the spraying for $800 for the first time. and put mulch and labor at $515. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carried.

That'll come out of the court, I'm sure.

Yeah. And then did you guys want to do the $150 per month after continuing after they take care of that?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What is this? I choose to read this.

Yeah.

I don't want to know about it.

I know. So they come and do this every year. And I'm like, why aren't we doing this in the fall when we power up the boiler system? So I just wanted you guys to be aware that this is coming up. They come and inspect the boiler. We have to have a third party come and inspect that. And they're scheduling that. But we have to have someone on site that can turn it on power it up and take them through it, which has been Intergreen in the past. So I'm going to get with Intergreen. I have a call out to them to give me a call this evening.

So we got to shut down the air conditioning, flip it back over to heat?

Which I'm really...

There's no way they can do this in the fall?

I would really like that to happen. I can't remember what happened last time. I think because I went back through my emails just to kind of see how this all... And I'm thinking that we did move it closer to that time.

I would schedule it way past. If they'll allow it.

I don't know if we have to do it at a different amount of time.

Yeah, they can't ask us to shut down the air conditioning and flip it over and then flip it back. I know.

Because it's not a small task.

Because we're paying for it.

Yeah, and it's not a small task to do that. So I'm going to ask them to coordinate with And, and last year in a green was really good at coordinating with them and making it all work. So I'm going to ask that they coordinate with them again next year for this year.

Yeah.

When we're, when we're pushing over from yep. I agree. Yeah. Cause once we, yeah, it's not a small task to switch over for sure. Oh, the other thing I have on my list is canvas. Um, we, I think just from last year, I think it would be good if we went ahead, especially poorly. I have to have you guys open that, um, between eight and 10. So if nine of thoughts works on that day, then we can, I can present you guys all the data, give you what you need. We can recess and then, um, finish it up that way. You guys aren't sitting around and we're not putting pressure on Susan to get those guys up there. Yeah, that's fine. Okay.

Okay. Did you guys talk about that? No. No, not yet.

Okay. That's for putting this booth or table up there. Okay. What you want to have somebody up there the whole time with state fairs going on. Since you're saying she wants to do it. Not me. You can eat all the corn dogs. That was good. Deep fried chocolate Oreo. Well, maybe.

Maybe.

yeah i don't think it looks like it's maybe just like the kansas county state map exhibit they just give us a spot on the state map did you guys read that i don't think they it's a booth i think it was i did read it but it was over the weekend components it's okay yeah and that's okay i think it's like a thing they put um in a new area where what you're known for

Yeah. Cotton, coal, water, agricultural products, commodities.

She called me to make sure that we received it.

So I wanted to get it in front of you guys.

Is that all you guys said? It is. I got one thing. Dispatch has been having some type of not 100% radio issues. She called in a company. They gave them two options. They think it's tied to our lightning strike or two lightning strikes. Once a couple of years. Yeah, and I think they're just starting to show up. Gotcha. she did send me a deal and it was like 69 or 62 000 and 70 000 but they're coming down july 8th or 9th and i'll have a meeting with them they don't have that in their budget so i'm i'm just warning you there's probably going to be an ask i don't know where this is headed but i'll just give you a heads up but they seem to really think it's part of the lightning strike it's just now so we're not showing up but he did some stuff and corroded and do we have money in the 911 fund not that much not that much yeah so like i say i'll meet with them that day in the city and then we'll probably have a board meeting go from there and see what but i'm assuming there's an ass coming And we do have that 130 sitting there that we won't use this year.

Right.

So, yeah, that's all I got.

You make a motion to pay the vouchers.

Now we have a second one here. I'd like to see what Scott gets us.

Yeah.

My personal opinion is I do not want to spend the interest that we made off our investments because that's not funding the budget that's just fishing it off i think because we went down what three mils two mils i got a bag from the three i think three or close to three i still think we can do the ems and the cola but I don't know what the insurance is yet. Did you ever figure that out, what the increase was?

Yeah, we did it while we were here.

Oh, did you? So we have all that.

Yeah, and I still think we're going to be okay in that fund, like in our health insurance premium. I think we're good on that.

So no increase there?

Well, I mean, for 2027, yes. Yes, but I mean, for this year, just because the conversation was that they're split in half, there's an increase halfway through that we don't know what it is. We're going to be okay for this year. He's going to account for it for next year.

Okay. Okay. That's what I need to know. I'll just wait until Scott gets that done, and then I'll have some other thoughts. I think our IT guy needs to be the first billionaire in Kansas.

I agree with that.

That's a reach.

I'll second Tom's motion. Sorry, Tom, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

They're moving seconded to pay the vouchers. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. We'll pay the vouchers.

We roll one there this time, too. Here's Mary's. I don't know if you guys want to .

Did you talk to unis about their moment?

I did.

And spreading the word?

I did. I don't know that it helped. Oh, really?

I really wouldn't think they'd want to pay for damages.

I never see them. I don't know if I'm just too... I guess the window's behind me, so I don't look out as much, but I think maybe they just took the... guards off.

Maybe you couldn't hear them over the pitches.

How about my rattling? Yeah, they're rattling. It's still not fixed. So I finally got it on video though. So I sent him that. Oh, speaking of which, Terry did get up and look in the upstairs. so there's two possibilities mark mark got up there um how many did you run out there was none no pigeons to be found but there was an egg like right by the entrance like when you cross through that hole to get up there just like right there was an old smashed egg and maybe that's the one we found in the room see that's what we're wondering either a pigeon got in there or like was left behind after yeah and made a mess or maybe cleanup wasn't fantastic or they got in there again so those those i guess there's three possibilities there neither one of them were good no that's a payroll thank you at least he wasn't home so it

Yeah.

Did it smell up there? It didn't break in there. I'm sure. No.

And I'm sure the heat is not, you know, I think replacing the ceiling tiles is probably going to go, but there's, I don't know. I don't know if Carrie would even be interested in getting a fairing cleaning.

It didn't smell like stuff. It just smells. Yeah. I'm just wondering too, if the wind blows just right, it goes through those vents and pushes it down. Yeah. You guys looking up there?

You know something like that. The part.

Mr. Mcmary's staff here.

I thought I saw Doug up there earlier.

He was up there.

He wasn't coming in. No, he said he wasn't coming in. But the office was locked. He's probably in there napping. I think he's playing catch up.

He is playing catch up. Gotta pay a price for taking off.

we did get a bill on the lagoon out there sessions they're finalizing the is it in this batch the bid thing closing it up they're part of it yeah for building the dam or whatever they're doing Oh, is that yours? No. Oh. Okay.

I need to sign that one too. Thank you.

You're welcome.

We need that in the back section.

Yes.

Wherever. The checks are yours.

Oh, the checks are mine.

Yeah.

The register is hers. Well, one of those is Mary's. That's the one I...

This is the last. I need to sign that. I'm sure that's what it's signed in. Yeah, this one's ours.

Thank you.

anything else you can't say anything i know i'll make a motion we adjourn i'll second it then move in second and we adjourn all those favors say aye aye