Meetings

The Commissioners met Tuesday morning for their monthly meeting. First on the agenda was a public hearing for vacating Kersey streets but the person who was presenting the issue was absent so the item was skipped.

The Commissioners had questions about a request from Animal Control for training and also about the role of Animal Control--how much it should be concerned with abuse and neglect cases. The discussion took more than the allotted time. Then Jateen Patel, who owns the new Comfort Suites hotel, was appointed to the Tourism Board. The surveyor had digitized old records and now wanted to digitize more recent documents. The Commissioners wanted to know the cost before they approved the contract. Community Corrections was granted permission to fill a vacancy and also had a proposal to move a part-time employee to full time to cover a temporary absence when another employee leaves for several months for National Guard duty.

Prompt Ambulance gave a short presentation. They will be partnering with several other agencies to encourage people, especially older people, to have basic medical information readily available for EMTs and other ambulance personnel in case of an emergency. Pat Donnelly, the Veterans' Service Officer, said that he would like to go to part-time next year and proposed switching positions with his assistant. The next item, a request from Ellas Construction to use a County lot for staging for bridge replacement, was discussed in the previous post.

Sheriff Risner received permission to replace a full-time communications officer. The contract with Havel for maintaining equipment at the jail is expiring at the end of September and the Sheriff presented two bids to continue that maintenance. The County has not been completely happy with the service they have gotten from Havel, but the other bid from Precision Control was significantly higher. A decision will be made at the October 2 meeting. The last item before the break was approving use of the northwest corner of the Court House lot for the Christmas Santa's House. The Christmas parade will be on December 2 but the route will depend on whether the Washington Street bridge is open.

After the break the Commissioners approved an appointment to the Animal Control Board, approved training and vacation requests, passed an ordinance raising fees for the Health Department, discussed the project to put the County ordinances online, discussed the Department of Justice mandate on risk management policies and procedures, passed an ordinance pertaining to risk management but also put the item on the October agenda. They decided that the employee handbook will not be included in the on-line version of county ordinances but will be available on-line to county employees.

The Drainage Board meeting Monday afternoon was much shorter than the Commissioners morning meeting. There was a bid opening for reconstructing the Price tile, which is 100 years old. There was only one bid, for $234,482, which was below estimates. There are 544 acres in the watershed, so the cost per acre is about $500. There were two people who were very much against it, one because he was at the bottom of the tile and had spent money to solve his problems and the other who did not think she would live long enough to reap the benefits given the high cost. Kendall Culp recused himself and was replaced by someone else on the Board for this decision. After hearing from the those who wished to speak, the project and the bid were approved. The rest of the meeting approved several much smaller bids and projects.

In the evening the Rensselaer Park Board met. The first item they discussed was pickle ball. The tennis courts at Brookside Park now have pickle ball markings on them so they can be used for either tennis or pickle ball. Pickle ball has less movement than tennis, so is popular with older people. It is sort of a cross between tennis and ping pong. For more, see here. There will be a ribbon cutting for the courts on September 11 and on September 30 a call out for people interested in learning the game. The Board approved spending up to $300 to purchase equipment to help get the sport up and running.

(The blue lines are for pickle ball, the white for tennis.)

The Board then reviewed plans for a dog park on Bunkum. Titan Construction had drawn up preliminary plans with two yards, one for small dogs and another for large dogs. The cost of the fencing will depend on what kind of fence is selected. In the discussion the overall cost was estimated in the $80K range.

There was a long discussion about trails, especially a trail in Bicentennial Park.

The Board has a vacancy and three people have expressed interest in filling it, which means the Board will have to choose, something they have not had to do before. The next meeting will be October 2.

Finally, here are some pictures from SJC and the ongoing sale.

 A week or two ago there were only a few of these trays and they were priced at either $2 or $3.

 There are many chairs for sale.

 These are not quite as expensive as those above.

 Still more chairs.

As Hilco sells items, they haul in more stuff.