Dunn working to correct balance

During the Bourbon County Commission meeting Friday morning, County Treasurer Rhonda Dunn reported to commissioners the results of a required quarterly statement of county funds.

The line-item report provided an overview of balances, receipts, disbursements, and ending balances for every fund in which the treasurer's office is responsible for. According to Dunn, the report essentially details the balances within those funds. Dunn said the quarterly report ran through the end of April.

One item highlighted by Dunn and discussed with commissioners in detail was "insufficient fund checks," which showed a negative balance of $9,613.

"When the county has a check returned, they pick that check up and it's recorded in here," Dunn told The Tribune. "And then when the check writer pays it off they record the revenue back against it. We never move the tax revenue or the tag revenue around, we just move it in and out of this fund."

Dunn said she doesn't believe the insufficient fund checks balance is correct.

"This fund is over 10 years old," she said. "And I'm researching it back to say, 'I don't believe this balance is correct.' I think over the years things have not been recorded correctly. And so, I'm trying to research down to find where the bad checks were recorded in, and where their revenue was offset when it was paid. And I want to get it down to the balance where we need to collect. Not old stuff (where) we don't know what it is."

Dunn said the negative insufficient fund checks balance of nearly $10,000 means that money is owed to the county.

"The other positive balances are money the county holds in the funds for other entities or the county itself, she said. "And this one being negative, it's money being owed to the county. I don't believe the (insufficient fund checks) balance is correct. We really don't have a bad check problem. I think that there are checks that have been paid that haven't been recorded back against this fund."

Dunn said her research into this fund will be "a long process."

"And so we're cleaning it up. We probably have about five years of data already analyzed," she said. "And then as soon as we can we'll make some entries and clean it up, and get it down to what the county is really owed."

The quarterly report presented to commissioners by Dunn will be printed in a future edition of The Tribune. According to the report, the county's total cash and investments through the end of April is $6,657,249.27.

"I hope people read it and look it over," Dunn said. "Because they can see tax dollars that are collected. They can see the money that's paid to the different entities that they read about in the paper. Plus, if you live in one of the townships or smaller townships, you can see the tax money that's allocated from the county based on the mill levy set by their township -- that (the) money is getting to your township. And then, it's up to each individual organization how it's spent in their budget. But it's good for people to know, where you live, what money is coming into your area."

The report also details a statement of public funds, which reflects current cash balances for the county, as well as the banks in which the money sits in.

"This is so that everyone is aware that these are the amounts owed to other entities by the county and that the county has that cash. We are in balance every day," she said.

Jim Harris update

Roads and Bridges Director Jim Harris was on hand to give commissioners an update on current county projects. Harris said ditching on Calvary Road is about 50 percent completed.

"We're also working on Yale Road, which is in the Northwest part of the county," Harris told The Tribune. "We're (doing) milling and asphalt out there, we can overlay it. It's on a program this year. We want to start our hot mix overlay program next Wednesday. That was our plan, but it has to be a certain temperature before we can do that."

Harris also reported on the current progress of the Riverfront Park project. The park, located at the confluence of the Marmaton River and Mill Creek, will eventually be a northern gateway to Fort Scott, if all goes according to plan. The master plan includes walking and biking trails and picnic areas as well as "respecting and enhancing the natural and historic treasures of the area," according to the project brochure. The Fort Scott Riverfront Authority was charged with oversight of the multi-year project.

"We should have our base work completed (Friday). As far as the basic drainage and base work on the walkway," Harris said. "Then he (Frank Young of Agricultural Engineering Associates of Uniontown) will inspect it later (Friday). Then we will let it dry for about a week. And then we'll overlay it with hot mix, asphalt. (Young) said we could do the Riverfront Park project with one lift. Sometimes you do overlay projects with certain lifts. But we're going to do this on a four-inch lift."

Approval Mack dump truck

Commissioners unanimously approved the purchase of a used Mack dump truck.

"They (Public Works) needed to purchase a new truck, and the one that they had purchased for $75,000, ended up not being available," Second District Commissioner Barbara Albright told The Tribune. "So then, we weren't able to purchase that. And they (Harris and Public Works) found another one, but it is a little higher, they're purchasing it for $79,000."

According to County Clerk Kendall Mason, 50 percent of the cost for the purchase of the vehicle will come from the special machinery fund while the other 50 percent will come from the Road and Bridges Sales Tax fund.

"That's because we use a dump truck for hauling asphalt, and we're allowed to use a special sales tax fund to pay for asphalt programs," Harris said. And then we have a special machinery fund that we have set aside to buy equipment."

According to Dunn's quarterly report, the ending balance for the Special Road Machinery Fund was $291,700.73. The ending balance for the Road and Bridges Sales Fund was $1,085,608.92.

Harris said the vehicle will be purchased from Westfall GMC Truck, Inc., located in Kansas City, Mo. According to Harris and Albright, the truck should be available for pickup Monday.

"We're moving forward. We've got an excellent Road Program this year," Harris said. "We'll get a lot of crew members out there and we'll get a lot of work done this year."

U.S. Highway 69 expansion update

Kansas Department of Transportation Area Engineer Darrin E. Petrowsky updated commissioners on the planned U.S. Highway 69 expansion project. Petroswky sought input from commissioners about whether residents in certain areas affected by the future project will need to relocate mail boxes with the pending expansion of the highway.

Executive session

Around 11:15 a.m., commissioners went into an executive session, which lasted 15 minutes. No action was taken by commissioners.