County purchases pickup, sets levies

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Connie Jo Discoe, Regional Editor

Red Willow County commissioners bought a 2002 Dodge pickup for the sheriff's department during their regular meeting Monday morning. They spent just a little more than they had budgeted, but selected the pickup that came closest to the $14,000 they had planned to spend.

Commissioners OK'd the purchase of a 2002 Dodge 1500 Quad-Cab 4x4 pickup from Republican Valley Motors in McCook after reviewing two bids they received for a new vehicle for a sheriff's deputy. RVM's bid was for $14,650, with the trade-in of a 2001 Chevy Impala with 82,000 miles on it. The pickup has 21,000 miles on it.

The second bid was from Wagner Ford Mercury, also of McCook, which offered a 2003 Ford F150 Super Cab 4x4 for $17,777. The pickup has 25,300 miles.

Commissioner Leigh Hoyt said the Dodge was closer to what the sheriff had requested -- a pickup model year 2000 or newer, with 25,000 miles or less -- and closer to the budgeted figure of $14,000.

Commissioners approved an order creating an access road onto isolated land owned by Tom Smith and awarding damages of $920 to landowners Lyle Lavarack and Vernita Saylor of Bartley.

Commissioners and County Attorney Paul Wood assured Smith the order is a description of the road only and is not a description of boundary lines. Commission Chairman Earl McNutt said he told Lavarack by phone two weeks ago the order grants Smith access to his land and does not include provisions for fencing and/or a cattle guard.

Wood said the order creates a public-access road now, and the road should not be gated or locked. Wood told commissioners it would not be their responsibility to mediate a situation if a gate should be locked again. The access road is the result of a quarrel over the Smith family's use of Lavarack land to gain access to Smith land south east of Bartley, Lavarack's and Saylor's insistence that they keep the gate locked at all times and the Smiths' inability to always open the lock.

Smith agreed to pay the Lavarack family $1,000 an acre for the .92 of an acre needed to create the road.

Smith reimbursed the county $495 for surveying costs paid by the county for the creation of the road, although by state statute Smith is not required to pay surveying expenses.

Commissioners approved resolutions allocating levy authority to these subdivisions within the county:

High Plains Historical Society: requesting $16,688.32 in tax money; 2003-04 levy of $.002876.

Bartley Rural Fire Department: requesting $18,331.84 in tax money; 2003-04 tax levy of $.038000.

Beaver Valley Fire District: requesting $20,039.75 in a common levy, tax levy of $.038000; a bond levy of $.032966 will raise $17,385.

Indianola Rural Fire District: requesting $25,092 in a general/sinking fund and $27,664.18 in a common levy; 2003-04 tax levy of $.038000.

Red Willow Western Rural Fire Department: requesting $44,927,82 in a general fund and $47,753.13 in a common levy of $.038000.

Danbury Cemetery: Requesting $2,087.12 in tax money; 2003-04 tax levy of $.012155.

Hamburg Cemetery: Requesting $800.08; 2003-04 tax levy of $.009741.

Lebanon Cemetery; Requesting $2,400.08 in tax money; 2003-04 tax levy of $.024411.

County Surveyor Gary Dicenta provided a certificate of substantial completion of the county's 2003 armor-coating projects. The cost of the projects -- seven miles of Bartley North, nine miles of Lebanon North, 1/2 mile of Lebanon Southwest and patching at the Bartley shop -- was $2,000 below the original estimate.

Commissioners approved the payment to Figgens Construction, Red Cloud, of $146,503.34.

Commissioners and Budget Clerk Shirley Volz conducted a budget workshop as they near the hearing date, Sept. 8, for the county's 2003-04 budget.

McNutt commended most county offices for submitting budgets that stayed the same or were a little lower as last year. It would have been nice to have been able to lower the tax levy, but it's better, McNutt said, to maintain a level in anticipation of a time that the county's valuation could decrease if irrigated land is valued and taxed less as dry land.

In other action, commissioners:

Approved a request for property tax exemption from McCook First Church of the Nazarene, which has purchased and moved into the vacant church at 801 W. First.