BOCC August 24

CountyCommission August 23, 2012

All present.

From almost the beginning of the session the question of the 1/2 per cent county sales tax became the background of the meeting. When there was a "break" in business the discussion went back to the slide show which is designed to inform voters of the need for the tax, where the current tax (that expires in Dec) money was spent, and possible plans for the new tax. The tax will be spent on repairing roads, culverts and bridges. The photos of projects - old and new- show the needs and results of this sales tax. The Commissioners took great pains to edit out redundant information and illustrations in the attempt to make the presentation comprehensive, concise and complete. It was edited down from 90 slides to about half that number.

Near the end of the morning, Manhattan Mayor Peppard and City Manager Ron Fehr met with the Commission to voice their feelings on what should be in any joint presentation showing the needs of the City of Manhattan and their proposed 65% of the 1/2 per cent sales tax. Most of what the City spent the last sales tax on was economic development and some infrastructure and salaries. All this was illustrated in pie-charts. Mayor Peppard initially stated that any presentation should be very concise, suggesting five minutes for the County, five minutes for the City and five minutes for the Chamber of Commerce. The City seems to have decided on infrastructure and property tax relief as their main use of the money. The article in Thursday’s Mercury (or at least the headlines) suggested that the City was asking (or appealing) for inclusion in the presentations. From what I observed of the discussions in the county meetings, they have always mentioned including the City of Manhattan in the educational presentations.
The city and county were to meet later that day (Aug.23) to go over the presentations.

In other business

The Riley County Domestic Violence Task Force requested and was granted a permit for an event using Courthouse Plaza space for a presentation on Domestic Violence Awareness Month from 11:30 to 1:30 on October 15.

Robert Nall, Director of IT reported that the GIS section is continuing work on projects affecting the ATA bus, Planning, Emergency Management and Appraisers' dept's. They successfully deployed the "find my polling place" website for the Elections office which lets people visually see the route from their registered address to their proper polling site. They have also met with District Courts about putting in a new wireless network after attorneys discontinue use and support of the law library. The County's video conferencing system has expanded to go beyond first arraignments to also handle appearances with Osawatomie, reducing the cost in man hours and delays.

Susan Kufahl, Director of County Health said that they had a school vaccination clinic August 3 where 54 children were given a total of 116 shots including Tdap, Varicella, Meningococcal, MMR, HepA, Hep B and Gardisil.

She announced that the flu vaccine is arriving and they will start giving shots Sept 5th. No appointment necessary. Cost will be $27 with other types, like the nasal spray and "high dose" for those over 65 will cost a bit more. No one is refused for inability to pay. County Health bills insurances, Medicaid, and Medicare. Getting one's shots at the local health dept does help support the department.

On the subject of West Nile, the last reported case was in 2009. there is no immunization available for humans (although there is one for horses!) In 2012 there were 13 confirmed cases of Pertussis, age range from 26 days to 80 years.. KDHE reported 56 cases statewide. She emphasized the importance of people getting Tdap shots to protect new babies who can't get the shots..

Julie Merklin, observer