BUTLER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

Monday, April 16, 2001

 

The Butler County Board of Commissioners was called to order by Commission Chairman, Bill Shriver.  Present were Commissioners Randy Doll and Will Carpenter along with County Administrator, Jay Newton and Clerk’s Secretary, Tindel Jennison.

 

COUNTY VOUCHER APPROVAL

Commissioner Carpenter moved to approve County Vouchers totaling $229,576.74 dated April 16, 2001.  Commissioner Doll seconded the motion that carried 3-0.

 

APPROVAL OF ADS & ABATES

Commissioner Carpenter moved to approve Abates totaling $357.78 and Ads totaling $23.00 per approval #2047.  Commissioner Doll seconded the motion that carried 3-0.

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Commissioner Doll moved to approve the Minutes of Monday, April 9 and Tuesday, April 10, 2001.  Commissioner Carpenter seconded the motion that carried 3-0.

 

GRASS CLIPPING - STATUS REPORT

County Engineer, Darryl Lutz stated that Diane Rollins, Solid Waste Coordinator was in the process of visiting with Butler County Cities regarding the County Landfill Green Waste Ban (tentatively January 1, 2002).  He stated that very positive feedback had been received. 

The Solid Waste Planning Committee will report to the Commission with activities and timelines.

Solid Waste goals for 2002:   (1) Aggressive Composting Education Campaign

                                                (2) Site at Landfill to pile Green waste

Cities will either have a drop site or their own compost site.  Andover, Augusta and El Dorado already have compost sites.

(3) Update Solid Waste Regulations (16 years old).  These will include a statement regarding penalties for loads of trash that contain green waste (such as from private carriers like BFI) or penalties for those who attempt to cheat the system.  Random trash load checks are currently performed for hazardous materials and checking for green waste could be easily implemented.  Requiring a load of trash to be dumped and visually inspected does this.  The green waste is not separated, just penalty assessment.

The Commission requested Mr. Lutz to provide a specific figure for the number of years that would be added to the life of the landfill when Green Waste is eliminated.

 

BRIDLEWOOD PROPERTY ACQUISITION UPDATE

Emergency Management Director, Jim Schmidt stated that the final request for payment has been sent to FEMA.  Approximately $25,000 has been paid to Key Construction for house demolition.

The project started with 20 homes (voluntary program) with an August 1, 2000 participation deadline.  Five homes did not participate and chose to remain in Bridlewood.  $281,798.91 was the County’s final cost.

The five homeowners remaining are fully aware of the flood risk and flood mitigation area they live in and had to sign-off accordingly.  The Federal Government may charge full actuarial cost and may deny Federal flood insurance.

FEMA looks at a 100-year time frame to determine how much buyout money is available.

Todd Tiahart was very instrumental in obtaining the funding for Bridlewood and will be visiting Butler County April 17, 2001.

The 60-acre (approximate) buyout property that now belongs to Butler County cannot be conveyed to private citizens but can be conveyed (title transfer) to other government entities or leased to private non-private organizations (501-C-3); a possible recoup of this expense may come if the county-owned area is leased out. 

 

EMS DEPT. REVIEW

Grant Helferich presented an EMS departmental review to the Board.  Regarding billing, he stated that three billing notices are given over a 90-day period.  If the bill remains unpaid after 90 days, a collection agency is contacted. 

Budget: 75% of the EMS budget comes from revenues, non-tax dollars: 

                                                Medicare                     41%

                                                General Insurance            34%

                                                                                    12%

                                                Medicare, etc.              12.5%

 

Staff:                                       El Dorado                        18

                                                Rose Hill                     9             (Volunteer)

                                                Potwin                            4                     

                                                Douglass                       7                     

Smaller population areas (Beaumont, Cassoday, Latham, Leon, etc) have first responders on the volunteer fire departments.

 

Response Calls:              El Dorado            40%            1425 calls

                                                Augusta          28%       886 calls

                                                Andover           25%       502 calls

                                                Towanda                        60

                                                Prison                               29

                                                El Dorado Lake        21

Calls to the prison are generally to the infirmary.  If in the general population area (suicide attempts), a “lock-down” takes place. 

Saturday, April 14, 2001 there were three times where the county reached a Status Zero (all EMS ambulances out on call and not available for new calls),  Options available to alleviate this are: mutual aid from Winfield or Sedgwick county or call in volunteers.

 

Transportation                      Ambulances     9

Suburbans             2             Used in areas where high clearance

                                                                                     Is required

                                                Bonnevile        1

                                                School Bus      1            Used for Rehabilitation program

(Fires:  Command Post, water for fireman, blood pressure and oxygen monitoring, cool-down & warm-up)

The EMS budget requires two mils of county budget currently.

 

ADJOURNMENT

Commissioner Doll moved to adjourn.  Commissioner Shriver seconded the motion that carried 3-0.