Lyon County will help pay for the sealing of roads on the Lyon County Fairgrounds following a vote during Thursday morning’s Lyon County Commission meeting.
Lyon County Engineer Chip Woods said the Fair Board proposed a 50/50 split in the cost of approximately $19,000 to seal the roads.
“The roads need to be sealed,” Woods said.
Commissioners approved the 50/50 split on a 3-0 vote.
Also approved at Thursday’s meeting:
• A contract between LexisNexis and Lyon County Court Trustee.
• A resolution rezoning a certain area in Lyon County from agriculture to agriculture single-use single family dwelling by Ronald Redelfs.
• A motion to approve assistant county engineer James Brull attending the AutoCAD 2009 fundamentals five-day course offered by Imaginit Technologies in Wichita from Sept. 22-26 and pay $1,695 in course fees and related expenses from the Road & Bridge Fund.
• A purchase of office furniture for the Lyon County Clerk of the District Court office in the amount of $6,325. The cost is associated with equipping a new office from scratch in the district court office. When Jeanine Turner retired earlier this year, her position was split into two positions. This caused the need for furniture in the new office. The cost includes all equipment needed for an office such as desk, file cabinet, computer and bookcase.
In a meeting with several Lyon County department heads, County Controller Dan Slater said the county has a responsibility to look at the budget closely.
“… Taxpayers are not as understanding as Bob (Agler) and I are,” Slater said. “We have to look at these things. ...”
Judge Merlin Wheeler said the major change in the court’s budget is the legal-defense costs. These costs include contracts with attorneys to provide legal services for assigned council in conflict cases.
“It is very rare that we have a child in a need of care case that doesn’t have multiple parties involved in it,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler said that portion of the budget is hard to predict.
“We don’t have the luxury of being able to predict what is going to be coming across our doorstep,” He said. “We do recognize that there have been several years in the past 10 years that we have actually underspent our budget amount by five digits. It’s just getting to the point where we don’t have that much freedom anymore.”
Wheeler said 2009’s budget is going to be very, very close.
“As the economy goes south, our budget goes up,” he said.
During the meeting, County Attorney Marc Goodman clarified a discussion that took place during Wednesday’s meeting regarding Kansas Legal Services’ request for additional funding. The county had cut $4,000 out of the Kansas Legal Services’ allocation request. Goodman said Wednesday that this could cause Kansas Legal Services to pull out of representing clients who need an attorney appointed to them because they cannot afford one.
Goodman said Ty Wheeler, of Kansas Legal Services, clarified this to him Wednesday afternoon, stating that the money would be used for protection from abuse cases.
“I think in terms of perception of the issue, if someone can’t get council for protection from abuse and they turn up dead, we don’t want that sitting on our doorstep,” Goodman said. “It’s certainly an issue of public safety.”
Commissioners opted to put $3,000 back into Kansas Legal Services’ budget, which will restore it to 2007’s level of funding.
When it comes to the county’s Road & Bridge budget, Commissioner Bob Davis said it needs more studying.
“This is a deal we are going to have to work on,” Davis said. “There are just so many unknowns.”
“We’ll leave it at what we got, but we’ll have to make cuts somewhere,” Woods said. “We’re worried about making this year’s budget because of costs.”
County Controller Dan Slater said the county is about three weeks ahead in the 2009 budgeting process. The deadline for a completed budget isn’t until Aug. 25. The county would like to publish the 2009 budget mid-August. Commissioners will hold an action session Thursday to vote on the budget so it can go to publication. They plan on holding the mill levy to a 2 percent or less increase for 2009.
jayhawker (anonymous) says...
I am amazed that District Court's department head would go to the commission saying that his budge is going to be "very, very close", then, in the same meeting, ask for $6,325.00 in new office furniture for one office. But more amazing - the commission gave it to him. If the sales tax passes and 1% more is imposed on us, it will take the first $632,500.00 in retail sales to pay for this furniture from the new tax. The commission did this at a time when they are asking for a tax increase. I just don't think that they get it. Do we entrust them with even more money?
August 1, 2008 at 6:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )