By Gary Lee Stuber
The regular meeting of the Clay County Commission on December 8 was the only meeting for the Commission in December. All three commissioners were present: David Schoolcraft; Joyce Johnson, president, and Duane Legg. County Clerk Shelia Stone was present as recorder. The commission approved the next meeting to be on January 2, which is a Friday and will be an organization meeting for the year. The meeting, which is required by law, will set the schedule dates and times for next year’s meetings, which are all subject to change year to year.
The fairly brief meeting was mostly regular business: minutes from the previous meeting, bills, purchase order, budget revisions, erroneous assessments as presented by the Assessor, fiduciary appointment as presented by the County Clerk, probating last wills and testaments, and final settlements of estates.
The commission accepted the Letter of Resignation of Marsha King, effective December 31.
The commission approved the purchase of an ambulance and a cot from Stryker from the state funded Ambulance Equipment Fund.
After a number of weeks of consideration and looking at options, the commission approved a new PEIA insurance change effective January 1, 2026 for all employees who wanted to take advantage of this. The plan change is for the Commission to directly pick up 80% of employee premium costs for employees that choose Plan C. The employees during open enrollment have the option to choose Plan A. But the commission will only pay 80% for those employees who remain in, or change to, Plan C. During comment opportunity, no one in the room objected to this change.
Terry Martin gave a number of reports beginning with the 2025 HUD Community Development Block Grant. Last year they applied for funding for the Ossia Water Project and only five projects were funded. He wanted to know if the commission wanted him to reapply this year. It would only require one public meeting to announce it. They gave him permission to tender the application. Next, he addressed the Congressional Directed Spending 911 Center update, telling the commission they were on the federal budget for up to $4.5 million dollars to relocate the 911 center. Before further progress can be made, the US Congress would need to approve the annual budget which will probably happen in January or February of next year. Last year because it was a Continuing Resolution, the President stripped out all extraneous spending from last years budget. The funding is still in the budget, but that budget would need to be approved. It could take up to six months after the budget is approved, because they will have to update a new application with HUD and an environmental study would need to be prepared on any selected site.
Terry Martin also gave updates on several projects. Regarding the Big Otter Nebo Waterline, Terry said they were about 60% complete and are expecting to have all work completed and people connected to water in March. The Grassy Fort Waterline is still in design and is about 75% completed. The issues right now are just getting easements and right-of-way signatures for the physical line. As far as the Clay County Judicial Annex is concerned, there are only minor things to be completed. So final payment will be delayed until the work is finished. After the meeting in a conversation with Sheriff Deputies, it was clarified that the Department is now using the patrol office in the new Judicial Annex. But the retaining cell is still not in use because benches are still three weeks out from arriving, and they will need to be bolted to the floor when they arrive.
The commission also noted that they had 13 applications for a second full-time janitor and were looking them all over. And that finishes the Clay County Commission for the year.
