Florence voters to decide on city sales tax
Staff writer
The City of Florence will have a special election Nov. 4, for approval or rejection of a .75-percent city sales tax. Advance voting will begin Oct. 15, Marion County Clerk Carol Maggard told county commissioners Monday during their meeting.
The purpose of the tax, according to a public notice in last week's Peabody Gazette-Bulletin, is to raise additional revenue "to provide an adequate level of public services within the City, and to perform such general governmental functions as may be in the best interest of the City."
Nothing specific is listed.
Collection of the tax, if approved by voters, would begin April 1, 2004, or on another date permitted by Kansas laws.
The polling place will be the Florentine Senior Center, 419 North Main, Florence.
Maggard said Matt Deloney, vice president of Mid-Continental Restoration Co., Inc., Fort Scott, had written, in a letter to Marion County, that he expects APAC of Wichita to have all work done on the courthouse's east parking lot by October's end.
David Brazil presented a preliminary contract proposal to have an engineering firm write new zoning regulations that conform to the county's new comprehensive plan. Commissioners will act on the proposal at Monday's meeting.
Brazil is the county's planning and zoning director, also its sanitarian and director of the transfer station.
The matter of the polluted cistern will be dealt with "in-house." County workers will take care of the situation, commissioners decided Monday.
The abandoned cistern, between the courthouse and the sheriff's office, was found a few months ago to have been the repository for hazardous medical waste, including used syringes.
Brazil said a company called Integrated Solutions had given him a "bare-bones" bid for removal of the items. Going with that firm would cost the county $6,000 or more, he said.
County workers will use a Dumpster with 20-cubic-yard capacity. It will be lined with a huge "trash bag," Brazil said. A company will then take it to the landfill for $700. County workers will then crush and fill the tank (cistern lining).
A redbud tree on the courthouse lawn will have to be removed to do the work, Brazil said.
Integrated Solutions told Brazil it could position a crane over the cistern opening, and lower a man into the cistern, on a piece of plywood. He would then fill two 55-gallon drums.
Commissioners said "do it in-house."
Brazil said 16 tires on two trailers at the transfer station need to be replaced in two weeks to a month. A bid from Leith, Inc., of Marion was accepted to provide the tires and mounting for $3,063.36.
Bill Gray, Beth Gray, and Cori Adair, all of Wichita, co-owners of Total Success Services, Inc., Wichita, spoke to commissioners about the services they can provide for developmentally disabled Marion Countians.
The three-year-old firm is an affiliate of Northview. It serves clients in Marion and Harvey counties, as well as Sedgwick and Reno counties.
Northview is the gatekeeper for these services, under Kansas law. It is the Community Developmentally Disabled Organization, or CDDO.
Medicaid pays for most of these services. Northview provides quality assurance. Northview receives discretionary funding (spendable as it sees fit) from the state of Kansas.
Adair said the 28 CDDOs in Kansas receive an average of about $500,000 per year from the state.
Bill Gray said Northview does not share any of that money with its affiliates. Adair said clients do not get to choose who provides services to them.
Some people who need services are not getting them through the county mill levy, Adair said.
Senate Bill 242, Bill Gray said, relates to separation of service providers from the CDDO gatekeeper. If it were passed, TSS would not have to be beholden to Northview for assignment of clients to serve.
"We would like to have a percentage of the county mill (levy)," Gray said, based on how many clients TSS serves in this county.
The three believe there is a conflict of interest in Northview's being both a gatekeeper and a provider of essential services.
TSS provides residential/support services, supported employment, and targeted care management.
TSS has never received a client from (referred by) Northview, Adair said.
"We're not getting our fair share. We're getting ripped off," she said.
The clients TSS has received were referred by the justice system, she said.
Bill Gray is president of finance and operations for TSS. Adair is president of employment services, and Beth Gray, Bill's wife, is director of case management and intake.
TSS has a staff of 18 people serving Marion and Harvey counties, and a total staff of 90.
In Marion and Harvey counties, 15 clients are being provided targeted care management, two are in residential only, seven in day and residential, two in day care only, and eight are in home support, Adair said.
Jan Moffitt, director of the county health department, said the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) nutrition program's records are all being computerized. There will be no more paper vouchers, she said.
All she will need to purchase for the change is two desks, she said, at a total cost of less than $400.
The health department will receive a total of $29,097 in grants this year, Moffitt said.
Moffitt requested and was granted a 10-minute closed session with commissioners to discuss her own position.
Deanne Nelson, sexual assault and domestic violence victims' advocate for Marion and McPherson counties, spoke to commissioners.
Commissioners signed a proclamation declaring October to be Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Marion County.
Nelson said 1,320 American women are murdered yearly by their husbands or boyfriends. Children are also victims many times.
And husbands can be on the receiving end of violence, even homicide, from their wives or significant others.
In Marion County last year, Nelson said, there were 57 reported incidents of domestic violence. Twenty-four arrests were made, including one case in which both parties (a couple) were arrested.
Four Marion County rapes were reported to the Kansas Attorney General's Office. Some of the rape victims may or may not have been adults. All are listed in a single category now, Nelson said.
Men are much less likely than women to report being victims of violence or assault, she said. Most of the time when males do make such a report, it's in a same-sex relationship, she said.
She works out of the Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Center, Inc., in Hutchinson.
County Appraiser Dianna Carter said Infinitec reported there were 3,925 "hits" on the Marion County Web site in a three-month period, July through September.
Sixty-five percent of those users were seeking parcel-search and tax-search information, Carter said.
A registered site for appraisers and banks has 12 clients signed up, she said.
Statistics just out show that sale prices of property in the county are very close to appraised values. Carter was justifiably proud of this, for herself and her staff, and was congratulated by commissioners.
Cardie Oil, Inc., Tampa, was the sole bidder to provide transport fuel for the road and bridge department. The total bid was $9,086.70. It includes 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel for Tank 3, for $3,622.20, 2,000 gallons of diesel for Tank 1 for $1,879.80, and 3,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline for $3,584.70.
Commissioners' next meeting will be at 9 a.m. Monday at the courthouse in Marion.
