County Commission Update

Hi Folks,

At our regular meeting last week, we started at 9:30 reviewing the claims. That process consists of each of us looking at each claim that is submitted that week and initialing it. Most of the time the claims are pretty routine and straight forward. Occasionally, something will pop out to one of us and we all look at it a little better. If we still don’t understand it, we contact the Clerk and Recorder or the Department Head that submitted the claim. Usually the Clerk and Recorder staff can answer our questions, because before we get the claims they have also reviewed them and double checked all the math and fund numbers so they can make sure the claim is paid out of the proper fund.

We then met with the Road Supervisor Rory Parsons for his report. The Whitehall crew has been mowing in the East end of the County and grading out in the Valley. We are looking at some options for the First Street Bridge in Whitehall. We put out a bid document to repair the bridge, but the prices came back way higher for the work than what we thought it would be.

We also met with Solid Waste Manager Candice Bell. She reported that we had 602 gallons of used oil picked up for a cost of $301.00. We used to get paid for the used oil, now we pay $.50 per gallon. We haul a tremendous amount of lawn waste, brush, and small trees to the landfill in Montana City, and the burn sites in Boulder and Whitehall.

In the afternoon part of our meeting, we appointed Steve Laster to the Weed Board. We also decided to go ahead with the purchase of a building on Main Street in Boulder that is owned by Montana Tunnels. We will deduct the $45,500.00 purchase price from their back taxes as part of a tax payment.

FYI: Thomas Sowell, American economist and political commentator; “There is nothing that politicians like better than handing out benefits to be paid for by someone else.”