County asked to consider combining veteran services offices

A McCook veteran and the Red Willow County veterans service officer recommended to county commissioners Monday morning that they investigate the possibility of consolidating veterans services with four neighboring counties.

Dan Stramel of McCook, a Marine veteran, told commissioners that their county's VSO (veterans service officer) is helping veterans in Hayes, Hitchcock, Dundy and Frontier counties anyway.

Stramel said that Bob Sutton, the VSO for Hitchcock, Hayes and Dundy counties, plans to retire in August, and that Frontier County's VSO is quite elderly and works from his home in Eustis.

Red Willow County's VSO, Tom Stritt of Indianola, told commissioners that with the limited schedules of the other counties' VSO's, veterans in those counties are not being served adequately, "and I don't like that."

Stramel said that Stritt is doing a wonderful job and that although he definitely doesn't mind helping veterans from other counties, Red Willow County is not being compensated for the work its VSO is performing for other counties.

Stritt said that many veterans stop by his office in McCook when they're in McCook. He said that his predecessor, Joe Williams, had a vision of creating a centralized veterans service office in McCook, with two full-time VSO's, one to travel to outlying county seats and one to remain in McCook. Stritt said that a full-time secretary-receptionist would also be very helpful to take care of paperwork and to set up appointments for out-of-town veterans.

Commissioners will contact their counterparts in the four other counties and set up a meeting to discuss the possibility of creating an interlocal agreement to consolidate veterans services.

In other action:

* Commissioners tabled until June 12, at 10 a.m., discussion of trying to purchase the former West Ward Elementary school and the city block on which it sits. Commissioners feel the public supports that location best for the proposed new city-county public safety center and jail, the approval of which will be on the November ballot.

Reuben Hoff Jr., chairman of the county's jail task force, told commissioners that the current owner, from Denver, is asking $170,000 for the property. The previous owner, Jon Morrison of Las Vegas, had offered the same property to the county for $50,000 in early 2005, but changed his mind and sold it instead to the Denver buyer for $130,000.

The county's latest appraisal of the property sets its value at $104,530.

Commissioners tabled the item to allow them time to visit with County Attorney Paul Wood about the possible purchase and the legalities involved in condemnation and imminent domain. "Lots of us are apprehensive about condemnation ... forcing the sale," said Commission Chairman Earl McNutt, but he and fellow commissioner Leigh Hoyt and Steve Downer still want to visit with Wood about the process.

* Red Willow County Treasurer Marleen Garcia reported to commissioners in her monthly update on the county's revolving loan fund that Jonzeez Java is behind two months on its payments and owes $464, and that Pawnee Aviation is behind four months and owes $8,832.80.

Gaston's Pet Pros and Silverstone are current on their payments, Garcia's report indicates.

Hoyt said he plans to visit with Ron Willocks, Pawnee Aviation's owner, about the late payments. McNutt said, "We can't let it go on too much longer without something being done."

* Commissioners set June 26 as the date to open bids for gravel to be used from July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2007. They tabled discussion of patching on Drive 717 southeast of Indianola until bids are discussed and taken for summer armor coating projects.

* Acting as a board of equalization, commissioners approved changes to 12 overvalued and undervalued properties. Assessor Sandra Kotschwar said that most of the changes were to cropland acreages, and most increased slightly. She will notify landowners of the changes, she told commissioners.

Kotschwar told commissioners that rural homes have been reappraised; Hoyt predicted there would be protests from those homeowners. Commissioners will set dates for 2006 protest hearings at their June 12 meeting.

* Commissioners appointed Marvin Colson of Bartley to a five-year term, until June 30, 2011, on the county's Veterans Service Committee. He will follow Melvin Meguire, whose term expires June 30, 2006.

* Commissioners reviewed Kotschwar's plan for assessment for 2007, 2008 and 2009; changes in open meetings laws; new federal regulations and new hazard signs for bridges; and a study of levees from the U.S. Department of Homeland SEcurity and FEMA. The county has two levees, in Indianola and Bartley.