County Clerk Carol Maggard said Dahl seemed unsure without the quick response whether he could get the county included in time, and even then inclusion might be questionable.

The commissioners added an hour of tour time of the county jail prior to the March 6 hearing that will discuss the possibility of replacing the jail by building a 72-bed correction center that could accept out-of-county prisoners for pay. The tour will be at 6 p.m. followed by the meeting at 7 p.m.

After looking at a breakdown of county employee hours and pay, Commissioner Randy Dallke said he is bothered by the dual system where some employees work 37.5 hours weekly while others work 40 hours when both receive benefits.

Maggard said that the shorter week can benefit county costs if the public is not coming to the courthouse during certain time periods. She said shorter hours originally were established with clerical staff in mind.

She said elected department heads usually end up working more than 40 hours weekly, and are held responsible for how hard they work by the electorate.

Commissioners Dallke and Dan Holub again questioned Planning and Zoning Director David Brazil and Planning Chairman Eileen Sieger about acreage sizes required for rural housing.

Dallke said it is unfair that the LESA system of determining where a rural residence can be built when applied in cases of small plots of three or five acres, but a person building on 40 acres or more is allowed to place a home anywhere on it.

Both men reiterated their contentions that it is in the county tax base interest to allow more small plots for housing anywhere in the county.

Sieger said that, by definition according to statutes, the planning commission must follow land-use rules in determining where rural housing may be located. She explained that the county has to follow such legal planning definitions to avoid being unfair, and to avoid legal battles because of preferential treatments.

"We can't allow people to build anywhere just because we think they are a nice young couple," she said.

Holub said he fundamentally thinks the county should consider to who zoning applicants are in order to get more tax payers.

Emergency Medical Services Director Darryl Thiesen reported 82 ambulance runs for January, six from Florence, 28 from Hillsboro, 25 from Marion, 15 from Peabody and eight from Tampa.

They included 14 transfers, 15 cardiac, 19 medical emergency, three standby, two motor vehicle accidents, four falls, 20 no transports and five 10-22.

There were eight first response runs, two from Burns, four from Goessel and two from Durham.

Thiesen said Centre is the only school in the county now without a heart defibrillator. He is raising donations to help the Centre get one.

Maggard reported the cash position of the county on Jan. 31 at $8,196,375.97 with $1,798, 930.82 in the county general fund and $1,528,494.54 in road and bridge.

Road and Bridge Director Jim Herzet reported that an effort to use millings on areas of gravel roads prone to washing appears that it will work as the millings settle more into the surface. He said when the area gets rain again, it will further help settle the millings.

Herzet assured the commissioners that the county will still have plenty of millings for patching and other uses.

The commissioners asked Maggard to send letters of thanks to the Kansas Department of Transportation at both the state and local level for clean-up work being done after construction on U.S. Highway 50.

They approved Sheriff Lee Becker purchasing the light bar for a squad car for $1,530, which will be the second bar he has purchased at that price.

County Appraiser Cindy Magill told the commissioners she will seek approval from the state for a 30-day delay to send property valuations out April 1. She said her office is behind because of personnel problems and her coming to the job in the middle of a year.

The commissioners approved paying workman's compensation on Marion County employees when they work on county-contracted projects in Dickinson and Morris counties.