By Gary Lee Stuber
The second regular February meeting of the Clay County Commission was relatively short and sweet. All three commissioners were in attendance, with Commissioner Duane Legg and Commission President Joyce Johnson present, and Commissioner David Schoolcraft in attendance by phone. County Clerk Shelia Stone was present to record.
As usual, the commission took care of routine business. Minutes from the previous meting, bills, purchase orders, budget revisions, fiduciary appointments as presented by the Assessor, appointments of Administrators, last wills, testaments, affidavit and waiver of final settlements.
The commission had intended to set time and dates for estate hearings for both Joyce S. Gibson and Tyrus H. Stone Jr., but neither of the parties were present. Thus, both estate hearings were rescheduled to the next regular meeting of the Clay County Commission on March 9, at 9 a.m., pending the presence of the concerned parties.
The commission approved a Policy for Purchasing and Procurement, and they also made the final payment of $100,000 for the completion of the new Judicial Annex that has been in use since November. The payment was made out of ARP funds as previously established.
While Terry Martin was not present, the commission approved two funding resolutions presented by Terry for the Ossia Road Waterline Extension. They approved the HUD Funding request for funding of $3,000,000. They also approved the ARC funding request for $2,000,000. That is a request for $5 million dollars for the Ossia Road Water Project.
At this point, the commission asked those present for any business they wanted to bring before the commission. For the second meeting in a row Martha Nottingham, a Clay County probation secretary, spoke. As she came up before the commission her right arm and wrist were still bandaged. “At the last meeting I issued a complaint that you had been very negligent for not keeping the parking lot free of snow and ice. So my question is, what are you going to do to make this a safe working environment for us?” She added, “I was told there were over 200 people who fell prior to my fall.”
Commissioner Legg was the first to address the issue. “The gentleman that we usually use for this service, I contacted him last night and he is not presently available. A lot of the getting this resolved is dependent upon finding someone that we can find to do it. There is no one dedicated to this work in the county to my knowledge.” He added, “Becky (the courthouse janitor) has been out shoveling and salting this morning although it has been a slow meltdown.” He continued, “We have talked to the school board. They will scrape it for us; and the State Road will as well. But when there are cars parked here, trucks with blades don’t have enough room to safely navigate through the back of this building where the traffic is parked.” It was brought to his attention that single digits through low teen temperatures such has been present these last few snows are ineffective when salted. Neither salt nor potassium will melt snow or ice below sixteen degrees. “We are looking at things, although we do not yet have a plan.”
The next Clay County Commission will be held on March 9 at 9 a.m., providing the worst of the winter weather has ended.
