Commissioners review status of oil well at fairgrounds

By Tay­lor Kaser -

Mor­row County com­mis­sion­ers stayed busy deal­ing with appro­pri­a­tions and fund trans­fers at their Novem­ber 11 reg­u­lar meet­ing.
Recently, the com­mis­sion­ers received an inquiry about an inac­tive oil well in the Mor­row County Fair­grounds — some­one expressed inter­est in leas­ing the well. County Pros­e­cu­tor Charles How­land researched whose respon­si­bil­ity the parcels that the well sits on, falls on.
He explained that there are four parcels involved — three in the county’s name and one in the Agri­cul­tural Soci­eties name.
The well is in the north half of the fair­grounds, near where the rides are set up dur­ing the fair. The com­mis­sion­ers wanted to find out who was legally respon­si­ble for the well, or if there are any exist­ing leases on the well.
Glenda Wil­son asked if the com­mis­sion­ers would be open to leas­ing the well.
“No,” answered Com­mis­sioner Tom Harden, “but we wanted to make sure that we even had any author­ity to any­thing, that’s what he’s [How­land] research­ing.” He explained that the well will not be used for frack­ing or dis­posal.
The man ask­ing about the lease had ques­tioned whether he was to come to the com­mis­sion­ers or the Fair Board to ask about the lease.
Since the fair­grounds lie within the Mt. Gilead Vil­lage cor­po­ra­tion lim­its, observed Com­mis­sioner Olen Jack­son, Vil­lage ordi­nances and zon­ing would also play a role.
Wil­son also asked about the two cur­rent tem­po­rary part time posi­tions in the Zon­ing and Devel­op­ment offices. After the retire­ment of two employ­ees, their posi­tions have not been filled.
She asked whether these posi­tions have been prop­erly adver­tised, accord­ing to require­ments.
Harden stated that he was unsure if the cur­rent tem­po­rary posi­tions had been adver­tised, or if it was nec­es­sary in this case.
The appro­pri­a­tion of unap­pro­pri­ated funds was approved for the Com­mu­nity Ser­vice build­ing fund, real estate assess­ment fund, water/sewer RLF grant fund­ing, Sheriff’s CSEA IV-D con­tract, grant assis­tance– ten­ant based fund and for the Ket­ter­man sewer project.
Also approved was the sell­ing of county vehi­cles deemed unneeded, obso­lete or unfit. There are six vehi­cles in all, which will be posted on the county’s web­site. Bids must be sub­mit­ted by Novem­ber 26 at 10 a.m.
Approval was granted for the Audi­tor to set up a new fund account for rev­enue and expen­di­tures con­nected with the Sheriff’s Office MARC’s radio grant.
Sup­ple­men­tal appro­pri­a­tion was approved for juve­nile pro­ba­tion fees, the child sup­port enforce­ment agency, and the Coun­cil on gov­ern­ment fund.
Trans­fers of funds were approved for the Zon­ing office, the County Engi­neer, and sewer dis­trict funds.
A change of order was also approved for the Board of Devel­op­men­tal Dis­abil­i­ties ren­o­va­tion project.

Posted by Taylor Kaser on Nov 14 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.