Desks had been moved before the reorganization meeting Monday of the county commission, Jan. 11. The commission voted for Brian Kinzie to become chairman of the board and Commissioner Jack Martin will be vice chair. Commissioner Lonie Addis handed the gavel over to Kinzie. Read more

Labette County Commissioners approved the Sheriff’s Department to purchase a blade for a utility vehicle for snow removal at their department and the sidewalks at the courthouse in Oswego, at Monday’s meeting. County Emergency Coordinator Jim Cook told the commissioners that he received only one snow removal bid for the Parsons court facilities. Read more

Cook, Flatt and Stoebel, engineering firm, received signatures on a engineering design contract for Bridge #800 at Monday’s county commission meeting, in the amount of $31,150 to be taken out of the special bridge fund. They will replace the bridge decking and will be closed 60-90 days for repair. The original bridge was built in 1978 and is located .75 miles east and 1.1 miles south of Parsons.
Read more

Debbi Baugher, Labette County Health Department Administrator, told the Labette County Commissioners at Monday’s meeting that she is expecting to receive news soon about H1N1 influenza funding in the amount of $10,300 for the first of three phases.
Read more

Tom Macaronas and Brock Sutherland of Labette Health in Parsons gave the Labette County Commissioners an update on their recent construction projects on the campus during Monday’s commission meeting.
Read more

The Kansas Legislature is the culprit for the county mill levy going up next year, according to a resolution passed by the Labette County Commission on Monday.
After passing the budget for 2010 which calls for a seven mill hike, Commissioner Chairman Lonie Addis presented the resolution which gained unanimous approval by fellow commissioners Brian Kinzie and Jack Martin.
Read more

The Labette County Commission approved to purchase four motor graders at the July 27 meeting, from Murphy Tractor and Equipment of Wichita gave the low bid of $638,420
with trade.
At Monday’s commission meeting, opening of bids to finance the motor graders was held with two bidders. Team Bank of Parsons was 4.99 percent and John Deere lease rate was 3.5 percent. Read more

The county commissioners appointed alternates for the Kansas Association of Counties (KAC) at Monday’s commission meeting. The first alternate will be Lonie Addis and second will be Brian Kinzie.
The Juvenile Justice Authority lease was renewed on the building used by Dr. Murphy.
_ _ _ Read more

Matt Atteberry, executive director for Labette Center for Mental Health Services, was given the reassurance at Monday’s county commission meeting that the center’s budget probably won’t be cut this year.
Atteberry told the board that how state funds were cut $160,000 the last two years for mental health services. The center has 48 full time employees, 14 part-time; 44 of them live in Parsons and the remaining live in Labette County. The center has served 1777 clients in 2008, consisting of 908 male and 869 female and the average age is 25-44 year olds.
Read more