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| County commission buys two properties |
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| News | |||
| Written by Brandon Steinert | |||
| Wednesday, 02 December 2009 09:00 | |||
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The Miami County Commission is not in the real-estate business, but members did decide to buy two properties Nov. 25 during their weekly meeting. The commissioners purchased the house at 1020 Walnut Ave. in Osawatomie as part of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The county used state-allocated federal stimulus dollars from the building reserve fund to purchase the property for use by the East Central Kansas Economic Opportunity Corporation as a subsidized rental house for low-income families. It’s the third house to be purchased for this purpose this year. The other property the commissioners purchased is behind the Miami County Administration Building at 110 S. Agate St. in Paola. They purchased the building from Medical Realty Partner LLC and plan to use it as either rented space or as storage to save money that would otherwise be spent renting storage space. In other business at the Nov. 25 meeting, the commission: Extended a conditional use permit granted to Bloody Acres LLC, a haunted amusement area. The applicant, Kurt Hollingshead, intended to have the haunted house open for business in October, but suffered an injury. In order to open in October next year, he needed an extension on his permit. The commission granted him the extension unanimously. Agreed to solicit bids for reinforcing steel and rebar chairs for a bridge project on 391st Street east of Bethel Church Road. The project is being done in-house and will cost about $20,000 for the required materials. Work will start late this year. Accepted worker’s compensation insurance from the lowest acceptable bidder, Kansas Workers Risk Cooperative for Counties (KWORCC). The bid was $206,792, which is actually a savings of about $30,000 when compared with last year’s rates from the same provider. Work Session Earlier last Wednesday morning, the commission met with several individuals working in various capacities in the county’s correctional practices. They discussed issues ranging from overcrowding to outdated facilities and concluded that the county eventually will have to construct a new jail. With various roads and bridges in disrepair in the area, commissioners were worried about public acceptance of a new jail. Commissioner Rob Roberts said it’s important that the public knows the commission’s priorities. “There are people in (the jail) who could kill (us),” he said, “more than any pothole and more than any cement chip on a bridge.” Sheriff Frank Kelly said the heart of the problem lies in the growth of the county. He said the current jail is outdated and too small to implement some of the correctional programs officials would like to see added to decrease the chances of a prisoner returning. Many of the prisoners have more than three drunken driving citations, and some have five or more. Others are in for rape or burglary. Most of those at the meeting agreed that the list of current prisoners are people they would prefer to have in jail and that sentencing has been appropriate.
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