Meeting of February 16, 2026

Okay, let's all stand for a pledge and prayer. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. — Okay, this morning I've asked Mr. Tim Milford to lead us in prayer if he would please. Heavenly Father God most father you going to [snorts] praise today give us Father that we can come together Father and Lord Father as just touch the mattress Father every season Father Father to do Father glorify your name Father give them wisdom Father God as you bless this county oh God and Father let's stren our homes and families during this time during this winter oh God we give you glory and praise father God and we thank you Father what you're doing Father most we seek after you father give you glory and praise in Jesus Christ's name amen Thank you, Tim. [clears throat] — Okay, just have to call the order and have a roll call, please. — Square Armstrong here. — Square Ev Greenwell here. — Judge Lucas, Squire Albright, — Square Moore, Square Henny — here. — Okay, let the record everyone is

present. — First item of business is approval of minutes of the January 2026 meeting. So, I entertain a motion to approve those minutes. — I'll make a motion. Okay. Motion for Square Mo. Is there a second? — Second. — Second. Square Albright. Any questions? — Hearing none. — Square Armstrong. — Yes. — Square Beavenon. Square Greenville. Yes. — Judge Lucas. Square Albbright. — Square Moore. — Yes. — Squire Henning. — Yes. That was a yes. Correct. — Yes. — Okay. — Okay. All All yeses. The minutes approved. Next item are transfers. And I'll entertain a motion to approve transfers. I'll move — Hennings there or a second. — I'll second more. Any questions? — Hearing none to please. — Squire Beavenon. Yes. — Squire Greenwell. Yes. Judge Lucas. Squire Albbright. Yes. — Squire Moore. Yes. — Squire Henning. — Yes. — Square Armstrong. — Yes. Transfer. Next item are the claims. I'll a motion to approve claims. I'll move. Okay. Motion Square Armstrong. Is there a second? [snorts] — I second.

— Second require Greenwell. Any questions? — Hearing none. Take over, please. — Square Greenwell, — yes. — Judge Lucas, Square Albright, — yes. — Square Moore, yes. — Square Henning, — yes. — Square Armstrong, — yes. — Square Evans, — yes. Yes. Claims are approved. Next time there's no old business. First item of new business is the road for report. Mr. John, — now of course most everybody all we had to talk about the last few weeks has been snow and ice and uh [snorts] all things considered uh with what we had to work with and the amount of ice we dealt with. I we did fairly well with it. The uh it was definitely a definitely a challenge with the cold temperatures and the packed ice and everything though. uh had to get the grers out and ran run that a lot. Uh now that we're seeing some warmer temperatures though, we're back to back to long arming and uh getting the rock trucks out and getting them going. Just about everybody in the county roads going to be asking for rock right now. So everybody's just going to have to be patient and understand that everybody's

going to be wanting rock. So, um, should be able to get the graders back up and running here in the next day or so. I'd say the ground will be I'd say the roads will be in shape where we can start to grade again. — We had a few breakdowns, didn't we? — We did have some breakdowns. um uh one major one. Everything else was was fairly minor and fairly easy to fix, but we did have one major breakdown with a uh with a ton truck that we used to plow salt with. So, — what's the timeline on that? — Uh it's at the shop right now. They're they're looking at putting an engine in it. So, it's uh it's going to be costly though with those engines that are in those trucks. something like $18,000. — Yeah. — But the truck's in good shape other than that. So, — to be honest, I couldn't tell you, Gary. I'd have to look. — It's something. I don't remember it, but I [clears throat] don't remember what the — I think Jeff told me 190. — Yeah, that sounds that sounds I — 180. I mean, it was — pushing them to — kind of unusual though. [clears throat] — Yeah.

— Yeah. Is uh is the stock uh salt building stock back up or is it — We'll we'll probably need to get some more salt at some point. Now whether y'all want to get it right now or whether you want to chance it and hope that we don't get any more snow, I mean we we've got enough to handle a small snow — at this point. [clears throat] — It's in pretty good shape. — Yeah. Yeah, we've got enough to handle some small snows. Probably wouldn't have enough to handle something like what we just had this year. — [clears throat] — Okay. Anything else, John? Any other questions? Okay. Thank you for that. [clears throat] He's on our way. [snorts] Okay. I tell you what, we might just jump over her to the McDaniels Fire Department, Mr. Chris Wooy. We'll wait for Meredith when she gets here. — Good morning again. Good morning again. — Appreciate y'all's time. I want to start off by saying I apologize for getting loud the other time that I was here. U some things get under my skin. I'm very passionate about you things. So, one

thing is the depart the fire department and uh the people that we cover and I just wanted to see come back to you guys again and see what's going on with the situation with the audit. I did get [snorts] uh Cathina a copy of the text message I told you all that we had concerning uh contacting the judge prior to the due dates. I think everybody has a copy of that and it state plainly states that from the judge that it was okay for us to be late. So, — yep. — Again, I'm coming back to you guys to uh see what you all feel or how you feel about uh thinking that over again and stopping the audit again. I don't care if you do the audit. It's nothing that we have to hide or nothing that we have that we're trying to hide out. I'm trying to save money and save cost of $6,000 on us and $6,000 on you guys. Now, $6,000 may not seem a whole lot to the fiscal court, but it does to McDaniels and the people that we serve. And I mean, I I don't know if there's anybody here from McDaniels in this area, but would you want to just throw

away $6,000 just because — I'm not from McDaniels, but I can tell you no, I would not. — I'm from the area and I don't want to throw away $6,000 and we got costly expenses coming up. and we just spent $15,000 on redoing the uh uh ladder truck so that we have a ladder truck in the area that's operational and being able to be used for fires or rescues or whatever it may be. So again, I'm coming back to you guys as a concerned [clears throat] citizen, as a person who lives in the area, and as a assistant chief of the bar, do you all really want to go through an audit when we don't have to? And let me let me let me say this. In four months, we're going to be going through another state audit that don't cost us anything. And don't cost the county nothing. — Chris, in past, have y'all ever had any deficiencies noted? — No. — I didn't think so. — No. Now, I understand whenever I stood

up here last meeting, I got upset. I shouldn't have. I apologize for that. And I said that we are not going to pay a dime. Now, speaking with the county attorney, she advised me that's probably not a good idea for us to do that. and we reth, you know, we thought about it and [clears throat and cough] I don't like the idea, Mickey. — I understand. — I don't like it. — I understand. — But if our hands are tied and we have to pay it, then those of you that lived in the area, we're going to have to spend $6,000 and we don't have to. Now, I don't know about you all, but that don't make sense. So, it's up to you all. And all you got to do is pick up the phone and say, "We don't need this audit." Am I correct? — I think so. Okay. — He called last was last week and got the got the contacts for you all over there. — Now, I will assure you still hasn't started yet. As [clears throat] far as I know, they've done nothing as far as I know. — I will assure you — and I can say this because I am in the position that I'm in now. You will have your audit paperwork this year on time whether we've got all our numbers together or not.