Lyon County commission action session
By Brandy Nance (Contact)
Originally published 09:15 a.m., August 28, 2008
Updated 10:17 a.m., August 28, 2008
10:15 a.m.
Commissioners approved the 2009 budget for Lyon County following a public hearing at 10 a.m.
Before they passed the 2009 budget, commissioners talked about the possible shortfall with the delay in the one percent sales tax collection. County Controller Dan Slater said the county will tap into reserve funds, but only if needed.
“What it boils down to is we have the extra reserves to cover this,” Bob Davis, Lyon County commissioner said.
Slater said the county looked at the option of no-fund warrants, which is a loan but that option would be costly to the county. The other option the county looked at was the usage of funds from the county’s multi-year capitol outlay fund. Under statute, the county can use the money to cover shortfalls. Slater said the shortfall could be $500,000 on the high end or it could be nothing. The county will not automatically transfer money from that fund to the general fund, Slater said. The county will go as long as it can without taking that action.
The mil levy for 2009 stands at 46.637, down from 2008’s 51.639.
10 a.m.
Commissioners passed a proclamation declaring the fourth Monday of every September as Family Day — a day to eat dinner with your children. Based on surveys conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, “children and teenagers eat dinner with their families the less likely they are to smoke, drink and use illegal drugs.”
9:30 a.m.
Commissioners discussed a new identification card system for Lyon County, which will be required for all first responders in Lyon County. Rick Frevert, of Lyon County Emergency Management, talked about the cards and expanding the use to Lyon County employees.
The card would be given to county employees and would be coded for each employee. The card would have multiple purposes. It would grant access to security points in county buildings and would give the county the ability to track a worker’s whereabouts. The tracking ability would allow emergency management to track a worker in an emergency situation or disaster. Frevert used the example of sending an employee to a disaster area. If the employee gets lost or hurt, they can be located. When located the employee’s card can be scanned and emergency contact information would be relayed to emergency personnel.
The other aspect of the card will allow Lyon County to track where employees go in county buildings. Right now, the county has no ability to tell which employee entered a secured area and for how long. The card system would give them that ability.
We want people to know that just because you have a card that works on a door doesn’t mean you can go through it,” Frevert said. “If you go somewhere you’re not supposed to there will be a paper trail and you will lose your privileges.”
9:10 a.m.
County commissioners approved the consent agenda at 8:10 a.m. this morning:
• Adopt 2009 holiday schedule for Lyon County.
• Appoint Marie Kuhlman to Lyon County Council on Aging Board.
• Approve Ken Barrows, of LCAT, attending the Kansas Department of Transportation annual meeting in Wichita.
• Approve the quote of Midwest Striping Inc. of Grand Island, Neb., to paint strip asphalt roads in Lyon County at $12.95 a gallon, which includes paint, beads and application for an estimated cost of $32,375.
• Approve the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office to replace and repair the fire alarm panel in dispatch center in the amount of $3,500.
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Posted by slipandslide (anonymous) on August 28, 2008 at 2:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
kids who eat dinner with their families are less likely to become involved in drugs/alcohol- i guess that means the kids whose homes are messed up enough that they dont take time to feed their kids are the ones to go the wrong way in life.
Posted by pizza (anonymous) on August 28, 2008 at 4:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Surely Frevert can find something useful to spend money on instead of a big brother watch system. Does he stay up late at night thinking up ways to fritter off someone else's money? He needs more worthwhile work to do than to spy on every county employee. Suppose he'd want to hire another person to watch how long employees go to the bath room. If the employees can't be trusted then they should not be working there. This is a ridiculous waste of tax dollars. He needs more work assignments to keep him busy. Sounds like he is trying to expand his own little empire rather than understanding he works for the county tax payers. I hope the commissioners can see through this awful waste of money.
Posted by emporialifer (anonymous) on August 28, 2008 at 4:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Those cards sound interesting - makes me wonder about what areas workers could get into now that they shouldn't and why they would be doing that? Without knowing the exact benefits and costs associated with the cards, I can't make an educated opinion, but I do know more and more businesses are going to electronic methods for tracking their employees or to give them building access, track their hours, etc. and it makes sense. Businesses must be as efficient as possible, especially in this economy. Those extra minutes on the clock that are wasted add up and cost a lot.
Consider this:
Employee X is salaried, but consistently arrives to work 15 minutes late (or takes 15 extra minutes of lunch) each day. 15 X 5 = 75 minutes per week. 75 minutes per week times 52 weeks per year = 3,900 minutes per year this employee is getting paid for and not working. 3,900 minutes divided by 60 minutes = 65 hours. 65 hours divided by an 8 hour work day = slightly over 8 days this person is being paid, so basically this employee is giving themselves an extra paid week of vacation each year. Just an example of how quickly those minutes can add up.
Posted by zeus (anonymous) on August 29, 2008 at 1:20 a.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
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