Meeting of October 26, 2021
10-26-21 Ohio County Fiscal Court Meeting · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
Ohio County Fiscal Court – October 26, 2021
The court approved routine business including minutes, bills, claims, payments and transfers, and adopted a required policy establishing standards for administering ARPA (American Rescue Plan) funds. Magistrates noted that all ARPA projects funded so far had already gone through resolutions, and discussed the need for contracts with fund recipients (such as the Rosine Community Park project) to track spending and clarify that any new employees hired with ARPA funds are temporary positions tied to the funding period.
EMS Director Jim Duke presented a request to purchase three refurbished LifePak 15 cardiac monitors and six ventilators for ambulances, at a cost of about $45,000 (versus $90,000 for new monitors), noting the county's current LifePak 12 monitors are obsolete and unrepairable. The court approved moving forward with this purchase via resolution. The court also approved resolutions authorizing the judge to sign paperwork for a bridge/culvert project and for the Product Development Initiative (PDI) grant related to a power line project.
Personnel and committee updates included hiring a new part-time courthouse custodian, appointing a court liaison to the firefighters association, and updates on the regional jail project — interlocal agreements have been signed and sent to the state, with a general management agreement still pending final review by county attorneys and a site location not yet determined. The Re-entry (ARCH) program was also discussed, including a new logo and update on hiring program coordinator Jerry Cantrell.
A road committee meeting was scheduled to discuss a request for additional excavator equipment, with magistrates asking for cost history on renting versus purchasing such equipment. The court also announced a modified December/November meeting schedule due to holidays, with claims to be handled via a single meeting each month.
A lengthy public comment came from a resident (Mr. Gates) describing years of flooding on his farm caused by a neighbor's dam, built with a corps of engineers permit, which has ruined his crops and idle oil wells. The court expressed sympathy but noted limited authority since the affected road is state-maintained, and agreed to invite state highway engineers to inspect the site and report back at the November 9th meeting.
Agenda (16)
- 0:04
Call to order, prayer, and pledge
Judge opened the meeting, led prayer and pledge of allegiance.
- 1:08
Approval of minutes
The court reviewed and approved minutes from the October 12th meeting.
- 1:27
Bills, claims, payments and transfers
The court reviewed and approved the bills, claims, payments and transfers, including the late list, with some discussion of specific line items.
- 4:03
ARPA fund spending policy
The court discussed and adopted a required policy establishing standards for administering ARPA funds, noting existing projects already went through resolutions.
- 8:45
EMS equipment request - cardiac monitors and ventilators
EMS Director Jim Duke presented a request for three refurbished LifePak 15 heart monitors and six ventilators, costing about $45,000 total, to replace aging obsolete equipment.
- 16:52
Resolution 2021-18 - bridge/culvert project
The court discussed and approved resolution 2021-18 authorizing the judge to sign paperwork for a road/bridge related project.
- 18:57
Resolution 2021-19 - Product Development Initiative grant
The court discussed and approved resolution 2021-19 related to a PDI grant application concerning a power line project.
- 20:18
Personnel - courthouse custodian hire
The judge announced the hiring of Jesse Willis as part-time courthouse custodian at level one wage scale, following custodian turnover problems.
- 21:11
Firefighters association committee appointment
The judge appointed a magistrate to serve on a committee with the firefighters association to review fire department funding requests.
- 22:16
Jail committee report
Justin reported interlocal agreements have been signed and sent to the state, and a general management agreement between the three counties is still under review by county attorneys, with site location undetermined.
- 25:17
Wage committee report
Sam reported the wage committee discussed personnel matters and some topics remain in committee for further review.
- 25:55
Road committee - excavator equipment request
The court noted a road committee meeting is planned to discuss the road supervisor's request for another piece of equipment, with magistrates requesting cost history on renting versus buying.
- 28:30
ARCH re-entry program update
Update on the ARCH (Assisting Returning Citizens with Hope) program including a new logo design and progress by coordinator Jerry Cantrell.
- 31:34
Meeting schedule change for November/December
The court announced a reduced meeting schedule for November and December due to holidays, with one full meeting each month and bills paid via a single motion.
- 34:12
Public comment - flooding dispute (Mr. Gates)
Resident Mr. Gates described years of flooding damage to his farm caused by a neighbor's dam built with a corps of engineers permit, and the court agreed to invite state highway engineers to inspect the site.
- 47:09
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned with the next meeting scheduled for November 9th.
Motions & votes (6)
- 1:09
passedApprove minutes of the October 12th meeting
Moved by Sam Small
- 1:39
passedApprove bills, claims, payments and transfers including the late list
Moved by Jason Bullock · seconded by Larry (Kim/Cain) · unanimous
- 8:04
passedAdopt the presented ARPA fund spending policy
seconded by Sam Small · unanimous
- 16:02
passedMove forward with purchase of three LifePak 15 heart monitors and six ventilators for EMS
- 16:52
unclearApprove resolution 2021-18 authorizing judge to sign paperwork for road/bridge project
- 19:36
passedApprove resolution 2021-19 for Product Development Initiative grant for power line project
Moved by Jason Bullock · seconded by Larry Cain
Transcript (38 segments)
- 0:01
[Music] call this medical high county fiscal court order on this 26th day of october 2021 at 5 pm i'm going to ask anne melton to lead us in a prayer and a place of flag our heavenly father we want to thank you for this beautiful day and be with this court as they make decisions for our county that will enhance our county and make it a wonderful place that has always been and even better in your name we pray amen amen 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 before you have the bill i mean you have the minutes of the october 12th meeting and motion to approve motion to sam small is there any discussion
- 1:16
uh corrections or addition no uncles any discussion corrections or additions on the maps thing now on facebook closed like signed ocean carry now you have the bills claims payments and transfers uh i have a motion to approve those linked lists too and including the late list all right the motion motion by jason bullock i'm sorry second by larry kim is there any discussion on the bills claimed payments or transfers i just explained you know from the lakeland okay and uh what's the wreck i mean i know you might not know oil and air filter change in a 21 dodge 228 up uh well that was they might have done something else i can get the bill if you want to look at it sometimes you get the filters and that title keeps on going does it yeah it doesn't have enough or they put some number on there that there's no way for us to know what it is a part or something is the home place it's got the roof on
- 2:32
it now i'd like to see that you don't have to go get it now okay uh tell me it was uh three from the bottom okay maybe i can texting and see do you have another copy i didn't bring mine in of this uh we're going to get to the map with the policy for our funds i do there it is and everybody has a confidence okay anybody else got any questions on
- 3:54
the bill's claim payment for transfers being nine authors say aye aye opposed like saying the bills are paid do you have before you a policy that we have to have in place now this may need a resolution number it that's up to you it didn't say that it's hard to just make sure the court has adopted the policy for standards for me to follow okay let's see policy for what arpathon i was spending yeah so now this is after we've said they qualify or is this going to limit that's before anything happens the project would have to be on a resolution before it can be paid so the court has to approve it before a project can be paid right which we've done so many already yeah but i mean to put a new project on the list does any of these guidelines going to hold hold them up well i mean it can be presented to the court but until it's on a resolution it we no money can be spent on that's what this is saying in a way this is kind of once we load on with those but we've already done two
- 5:08
resolutions and we still get it but we got an email the other day that we should have this in place and the only projects that we are proceeding with you all have approved by resolution and i don't believe there's anything on there that we wouldn't do anyway but we just gotta show them but it's not too late for them to get on no we'll have another resolution probably in november to add things on give us just a minute we had a contract at one time yes you have that yes okay i had the first one um the roseanne community park was our first one we're just having them sign a contract hannah and i kind of worked up some languages on the contract where they will keep records so that the court could see what the money may have been spent on or what have you and accurate reflection on what they received and everything of that name now this is you this is you might be another one too about and then is that not going to go like
- 6:22
what do you mean you had another little contract like we hire a new person they would let the that's for a department head on those full-time yeah so we're not going to prove that if you hire somebody we you only have this money for a four year period we never sign off on it and discussing what the judgment is about like those departments that got a full-time employee there needs to be a clear understanding between both the fiscal court and the department head that that employee is only for x number of years and at that time the funding ends and that that employee will be doing what they were hard to do not something else when you're ready don't think we have a motion yet on it i think it could be a motion to adopt the presented policy for our defense i think so far we've already fit we
- 7:37
followed those things well that that i guess that was my question pretty much we've already we've been asked to do bids and different things uh what i can see mostly here's to this yeah we would do it anyway okay i'll enter motion blurry second segment sam small further discussion being nine authors say aye aye opposed black sign carries harper funds charlie said the judge talked to him about meeting with the bar association tonight or tomorrow night well i didn't give any certain time i'm going to talk about it under committee reports okay so uh next up we're gonna call him jim duke is here to make a presentation for uh
- 8:49
for the uh good afternoon everyone uh i believe it was at the last meeting or the meeting before last one of the court members had requests that we think about was there anything that was needed for your ems service that possibly could be put on the list for opera funds that would would benefit the community and and obviously there's always items but i tried to look at something that was real important things that were in in dire need of being replaced and they were a responsibility of the court to provide and not something that comcare normally provides so the thing that come to mind was the cardiac heart monitors we're currently using the majority of our heart monitors are what's called a life pack 12 we've had them for about 15 years they've reached the end of their service life we cannot get them repaired when they break down now life pack will no longer repair those so as they break down they're just out of service so last year during covid you you guys purchased two of those lifepak 15s which is what replaced the 12. those were replaced units that had broke