NOVEMBER 2015
COMMISSIONER MEETINGS
Sweet Grass County Commissioner meetings are held in the office of the county commissioners in the Sweet Grass County Annex in Big Timber, Montana, unless otherwise noted in the minutes. Regular commissioner meeting days are the first working day of each week (usually Monday unless Monday is a holiday then Tuesday) and every Thursday during the month. These are the days to schedule issues that require the commissioner to take action. The first Monday of each month a department head staff meeting will be held at 9:30 a.m. Claims will be reviewed and approved for payment every Thursday unless a conflict arises. At least one commissioner will be in the office from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily unless they are at a conference or a meeting requiring them to be out of the office.
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Acronyms
BC – Billings Clinic
DES – Disaster and Emergency Services
CCR – Coordinated Community Response
FLAP – Federal Lands Access Program
IC – Incident Command
L.E.P.C. – Local Emergency Preparedness
MACo – Montana Association of Counties
MDT – Montana Department of Transportation
MOU – Memorandum of Understanding
PMC – Pioneer Medical Center
RC&D – Rural Conservation and Development
RFR – request for reimbursement.
TSEP – Treasure State Endowment Program – provides matching grant funds to local government agencies for construction of infrastructure projects.
Tyler Technology – CSA sold to Tyler – the company that Sweet Grass County contracts with for all of our financial software.
Monday, November 2, 2015
All Commissioners are in the office today. A staff meeting was held at 9:30 a.m., present were Jerry Mahlum, Deanna Novotny, Page Dringman, Pat Dringman, Vera Pederson, Erik Wood, Evie Halverson, Jane Stene, Jessie Connolly, Brooke Osen, Dan Tronrud, Lindsey from Big Timber Pioneer, and Susan Metcalf dropped off a report to read. Clerk of Court Novotny reported they had 11 new cases and that she attended a district meeting in Columbus. Undersheriff Mahlum informed us that their office had 240 calls for service last month and that his department will be short staffed in the next few months with officers out for various reasons. PMC CEO Erik Wood has been working on the business structure change with the commissioners and County Attorney Dringman. They have also filled the clinical manager, CTO Tech and a new physician position. He also announced that they were approved for a diabetes prevention grant program that will be starting in Januar 2016. Extension Agent King has been busy with 4H enrollments, reading the record books and the year-end bash is set for November 8th. Also he is working on a grant with the woolgrowers for a fiberlux machine to sort fleece lines (fine, ultra-fine, etc). DES Coordinator Osen informed us that her and Lori Thompson attended APCO last month, that text to 911 will be implemented in the next couple months, opened bids on the CAD system providers, the EMPG grant for this year was done and also working on updating the dispatcher policy and procedure incident manual. Justice of Peace Connolly said she had 7 new city cases and 85 new justice cases. She attended the fall judge’s school the end of September where she was elected President for another 4 years, she also attended a CPT meeting and Cara Jones attended bullet proof minds training. Weed Coordinator Halverson said she was closing out the Deer Creek and Urban spurge grants and winterizing equipment. Treasurer Stene informed us that the tax bills totaling $8,831,831were mailed out Friday and that Char and Stephanie went to MV training last month. County Attorney Dringman stated that he attended MT Medical Legal panel hearing last month and also spent time in Red Lodge doing a case for the county attorney in that county that was a conflict of interest with their county attorney. County Planner Dringman said they had a couple of COS reviews and approvals last month. Clerk and Recorder Pederson attended election training in Helena and that the municipal mail ballot election had 288 ballots returned as of today. Superintendent of Schools reports that she completed the Continuous School Improvement Plans, federal grant close-out reports, and TEAMS reports for all the schools. She is working on a Title 1 desk audit for the Melville school and that she did fall enrollment and data collection. Commissioner Mosness attended Mental Health Center meetings for 2 days working on the budgets and that the Commissioners met with Triangle Telephone regarding installing fiber optics up the Boulder. Commissioner Faw was out most of the month with health issues but they also had a meeting with FWP regarding the Boulder Forks fishing access. Commissioner Wallace added that he attended the Custer/Gallatin working group meeting, they appointed Cindy Selensky to the fair board and that Bill, Darrell Elgen, and the road department installed a new sidewalk at the Hooper Street entrance to the Annex.
Planner Dringman came in with a COS for Mary Lou Dolsen for a boundary relocation in Mallard Springs, also present was Mary Lou Dolsen. Commissioner Faw moved and Commissioner Mosness seconded this and it passed with 3 ayes. County Planner Dringman updated us on the Cowboy Hall of Fame and issues with the Army Corp of Engineers. After lunch the interlocal agreement between the County and the Chamber of Commerce was reviewed and signed. The agreement for the Sweet Grass County Senior Citizens bus service to Stillwater County seniors was sent out for review to Stillwater County.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Commissioner Mosness and Faw are in today and Commissioner Wallace was out. The municipal mail ballot election is today. Tom Hayes the auditor with Strom and Associates came in for the audit entrance interview and Jon Paul Poelman is at the PMC today auditing them.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
All Commissioners are in today. A meeting with PMC and the County to discuss issues regarding HR, payroll, insurance and PERS was held. Present were Vera Pederson, Catherine McKenzie, Vicki Uehling, Erik Wood, Miki Gregorich and on conference call Kyle Gee and Anne Marie Kloppel. It was decided we will try to get the transfer done by December 31, 2015 and if not we will wait until the following month.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
All Commissioners are in today. Brad McGann came in to visit about the open fair board position, also present was Marc King. A meeting was held with all 3 banks discussing a participation loan to cover the USDA bonds for the PMC that have to be refinanced. Present at that meeting were Vicki Uehling, Pat Dringman, Erin McCready (by phone), Sarah DeCock, Ashby Miller, and RJ Patch representing American Bank, Chris Mehus representing Citizens Bank and Monte Koch representing Opportunity Bank. The banks will continue to work on this and Erin will also get more information out on this process. Sarah DeCock will be the contact person for the banks and Vicki Uehling will be the County contact person. Erin, Pat and Vicki stayed to discuss the draft lease agreement and upcoming accounting issues. One of the biggest problems could be the county ownership of the vehicles including the ambulances.
Friday, November 6, 2015
Commissioner Mosness and Faw are in today. PMC claims were reviewed and stamped by Commissioner Mosness and Clerk and Recorder Pederson. Commissioner Wallace is attending the Coalition of Forest Counties meeting in Helena. The auditors are still here working.
Monday, November 9, 2015
Commissioner Wallace and Faw are in this morning and Commissioner Mosness was in later. Brad McGann was named the new member of the fair board. Commissioner Wallace made the motion and Commissioner Faw seconded it and it passed with 2 ayes. After lunch all commissioners traveled to Cow Creek to see the crusher working. The auditors came in for the exit interview. Tom Hayes with Strom & Associates, Vicki Uehling, and Jane Stene were present. It was a federal audit this year due to ongoing work from the 2011 floods. We need to update interlocal agreements with the city, they would like to see public works department photograph the gravel for inventory sheets and the only finding on the audit is the BTVFD donation checking accounts should be in the city’s name and the 2 rural departments revenue funds should flow through normal county internal control process.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Commissioner Mosness and Faw are in today and Commissioner Wallace is out.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Most county offices are closed today for Veteran’s Day
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Commissioner Wallace and Faw are in today and Commissioner Mosness is at SGHS talking about careers. A meeting was held to discuss the old high school. Present were Mayor Stephens, Jami Moody, Christina Bowden, McKenzie Reis, Lindsey Kroskob, Kathy Norskog, Eunice Kirkpatrick, Joe Todisco, Audrene Kunda, Page Dringman, Pat Dringman, Vera Pederson, Mark Ketchum and Craig Caes the sanitarian. Granite Technology came in to update us on what they have been doing for the county. Present at the meeting were; Bill Procunier, Kandi Schuman, Brooke Osen and Vera Pederson. We are very happy with the work that has been done so far and after the first of the year a new server will be installed. The commissioners then canvassed the votes for the municipal election. Clerk and Recorder Pederson read minutes from September and October 2015. They were approved with corrections.
Friday, November 13, 2015
All Commissioners are in today
Monday, November 16, 2015
All Commissioners are in today. Commissioner Mosness attended a PMC board meeting.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Commissioner Mosness was in today. She drove Howie road after a complaint was made about its condition. It will be repaired next spring when we receive millings from the state.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
All Commissioners are in this morning. PMC claims were reviewed and stamped by Commissioner Wallace and Clerk and Recorder Pederson. Planner Dringman came in with a boundary relocation between Travis Klein and Angela McKubbin. Commissioner Mosness moved to accept and Commissioner Faw seconded, it passed with 2 ayes.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Commissioner Faw was in the office today and Commissioner Wallace and Mosness were out. Commissioner Faw attended a Mental Health meeting. Commissioner Faw and Public Works Director Conner had a conference call on the Flap program on the Boulder road.
Friday, November 20, 2015
Commissioner Faw was in today and Commissioner Wallace and Mosness were out. Commissioner Faw went to the Stock growers meeting at 1:00 p.m. and dinner at 5:00 p.m.
Monday, November 23, 2015
Commissioner Wallace and Faw are in today and Commissioner Mosness was out. Leo Cremer came in to discuss the Boulder Forks fishing access site. He stated that the Crazy Mountain Stock Growers were against helping out the FWP.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Commissioner Wallace and Faw are in today and Commissioner Mosness was out. The county claims were reviewed and signed.
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Commissioner Wallace and Faw are in today and Commissioner Mosness was out. The county claims were stamped.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Thanksgiving Holiday
Friday, November 27, 2015
All Commissioners are in today.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Commissioner Wallace and Faw are in today and Commissioner Mosness was in Helena for MACO board meeting. At 9:00 a.m. we opened bids for the 1977 Case Backhoe from the cemetery. The winning bid was Terry Amadon for $6,750.00
Claims for the month of November amounted to $175,008.63.
County and PMC November payrolls totaled $526,016.53.
Respectfully submitted
/s/ Vera Pederson
Board of County Commissioners
William Wallace, Chairman
Attest:
Vera Pederson, Clerk