Here are the highlights of the County Commission meeting on 3/10/2020:

• Commissioners approved the purchase of new drink and dessert station cabinets for Senior Services for a total of $20,973.28.  These cabinets will be made and installed as part of the renovations that are occurring.
• Commissioners approved for the Noxious Weed Department to make all of their 2020 chemical purchases from Van Diest Supply Company.  The Noxious Weed Department purchases chemical for weed control on County properties and rights-of-way as well as selling chemical to the public.
• Darren Fishel, Road & Bridge Director, provided an update on the department’s activities in January and February.  He noted that all of the work has been complete in their response to the 2019 flood and all of the paperwork has been submitted to FEMA.  They have hauled 7,900 tons of rock in the last two months, and responded to 7 snow/ice events.  He showed Commissioners a map that highlighted where rock had been hauled as well as a map where they plan on hauling rock to over the next two months.  The Department also plans on upgrading ½ mile of Hedberg Road and 1 mile of Cooley Road to gravel.  They will be doing some re-building of Wasserman Way to improve drainage and re-shaping of the road.
• Commissioners signed a resolution that declared the times and dates that the Saline County Board of County Commissioners intends to meet each month for the remainder of the year.  This resolution was needed with the Commission adopting a Charter Resolution back in January that will exempt Saline County from the requirements of the statue requiring them to meet no less than twice each week.  The elimination of the second meeting will go into effect next week.  This resolution will still allow for the Chairman to cancel a meeting if he/she deems necessary or even call a special meeting.
• Commissioner Vidricksen and Phil Smith-Hanes both provided comments on the recent Equifest event that was held at the Expo Center and Tony’s Pizza Event Center.  David Flaherty II, Noxious Weed Dept, also provided comments on how well the event went, the attendance, and then the great work by the staff.  Huge shout out to Expo Staff for a job well done!
• Marilyn Leamer, Human Resources, had a conversation with Commissioners on possibly implementing time-off for recognition of years of service in lieu of the current gifts that are distributed once an employee reaches 5,10,15, or 20 years of service.  Commissioners were supportive of making this change.  It is proposed that at 5 years of service an employee would get 4 hours of vacation added on their anniversary, 5 hours of vacation on their 10 year anniversary, 6 hours on their 15 year anniversary, and 8 hours on their 20 year anniversary.  These would be one time only hours added to an employee’s leave bank.  More discussions will occur with Executive Staff on Wednesday before a policy change would come before the Commissioners.
• Commissioners reviewed expression of interest forms for appointments to the Planning & Zoning Commission.  A formal resolution re-appointing members and appointing members will come before the Commission next week.
• Phil Smith-Hanes, County Administrator, discussed with Commissioners about the upcoming budget preparations and to talk about parameters that they feel are appropriate.  While Commissioners expressed they wished for the budget to remain status quo, they also acknowledged that there are several projects on the horizon.  With that, they acknowledged that departments need to bring their needs to the Commission so that while those things may not be able to be funded, at least they are identified.
• One executive session was held for non-elected personnel.

County Reminders:

• Thursday, March 19^th at 6pm is the last Town Hall meeting on the Saline County Jail.  This meeting will take place at Salina South High School in the student commons area. We hope that you can join us!  If you haven’t checked out the latest information, we have been updating things on the county website.
• Census information will begin to be mailed to households across the US beginning March 12^th.  To learn more information about the Census visit www.2020census.gov