By Gary Lee Stuber
The Clay County Commission met last week for the first of its two regular meetings in November. The commission dealt primarily with routine business and approved minutes from the previous meeting, bills, purchase orders, budget revisions, erroneous assessments as presented by the Assessor, fiduciary appointments as provided by the Clay County Clerk, probating wills, last testaments, affidavits of waiver, and final estate settlements. All three commissioners were present as well as the county clerk recording the event.
Terry Martin intended to be present, but was unfortunately delayed until the next meeting which will be held on Nov. 24. Because of his absence, he could not update the status of Congressional Directed Spending for Clay County 911 relocation. However, the commission did approve his invoices for the Big Otter Waterline Extension, the invoices for the Grassy Fork Waterline Extension, the invoices for the Clay County Judicial Annex, and his request for reapplying for the Ossia Road Waterline Extension from HUD funding.
Speaking of the Clay County Judicial Annex, by the time of the second Clay County Commission Meeting this month, the new Judicial Annex should be officially open for relocation of current courthouse, and old courthouse, offices.
The commission also approved a motion to advertise for an additional position of courthouse janitor. This is a second position for both the new courthouse and the judicial annex. Both janitors will service both side-by-side locations.
Technically, there was no additional business, but when the commission opened discussion to the floor, the same two women present at the last commission meeting who brought up concerns regarding PEIA insurance coverage continued to do so, however, they were cut off by a statement by Commission President Joyce Johnson: “We have gotten more information since the last time we met. We have new numbers, and we have not decided what we are going to do with it yet. We are still considering all that, but nothing can be done until we reach open enrollment which comes up next April. Until then we can continue to plan. We have time to do this.” The commission allowed comment from the two without further discussion.
If there was anything of new interest during the meeting, it was that the commission opened the meeting at 8:55 and the entire meeting was over by 9:03 a.m. Donna Salisbury arriving at 9 a.m. glanced at her watch so see if she was late. She was not. When challenged on the meeting starting early, Commission President Johnson pointed to the clock at the back of the room that seemed to indicate it was at least 9:10 a.m. It was noted that the physical old style clock had been set back that previous weekend to adjust for daylight savings time. Obviously, whomever had set it had made the error. The clock will likely be adjusted to correct the time by the next meeting on the Nov. 24.
