Commissioners hear good news in their audit report

The Marion County Board of Commissioners met on Monday, Aug. 10. All of the commissioners were present except for Dianne Novak who attended virtually.

After hearing the latest COVID-19 update (please see that in a separate article) and attending to administrative business, the commissioners heard the results of the audit report.

The audit report was given by April Swartz, one of the owners of Varney & Associates.

Swartz praised Tina Spencer and her staff who sent everything to them electronically which allowed Varney & Associates to do their job efficiently.

“The audit went very well. There are no issues to report. The only thing I will mention is the financial statement is your responsibility as commissioners and our job is to issue an opinion as to if they are fairly stated,” said Swartz. “So, we do put it together, Tina does provide all of the back schedules to us ahead of time as far as her total. We prepare the financials and then we send them back to Tina for her review.”

Swartz said it was all done quite smoothly.

“You are lucky to have a county clerk that has the skill and the knowledge and the experience to know what is in the financial statement,” said Swartz.

There were no adjustments in the audit from the end of the year report.

“You do always budget conservatively. But you did collect 1.2 million more than you had budgeted to collect. A big piece of that was Diamond Vista income of $713,000,” said Swartz.

There were a few reasons for this.

“Those were the reimbursements for the engineers so we didn’t have expenses so it was offset by that. And then we also had our pilot money that did come in,” explained Spencer.

Swartz went over a few more pages but stated that anyone could look through the document and see them with any questions.

The time closed with positive comments for both Varney & Associates and for Tina Spencer and all of her work.

Road & Bridge

County Engineer Brice Goebel informed the commissioners that KDOT responded and is requiring permits for the 330th and Nighthawk projects making it impossible to get the project to be completed now before the end of the year.

Goebel did point out that this will allow for better pricing for materials and more time to acquire better products.

“With that being said, don’t put off those culverts. They need to be put in and started to be compacted and stuff like that. We’ve made that mistake before of putting the culverts in and then putting the blacktop and then had the divots. Is that your feeling or am I wrong?” asked Commissioner Randy Dallke.

Goebel stated that it wasn’t an issue as it could all be done fairly quickly.

“There are several ways of backfilling,” said Goebel. “I think we can do it fairly quickly.”

Goebel said they are chip sealing on Pawnee and the reservoir right now and should be done tomorrow.

“We will probably start blade patching next week. We are going to try to work up going toward Remington and Ramona on Quail Creek and 340th and into Lost Springs. We will be working on that for probably four to five weeks,” said Goebel.

In other business, the board:

n went into executive session to discuss personnel with County Appraiser Lisa Berg. Berg announced that she is resigning effective the end of the month. The commissioners voted to accept with regret.

“It’s been such a pleasure working with you. I can’t emphasize enough how much I appreciate your service to this county,” said Novak.

The board will begin making plans to cover Berg’s position.

n went into executive session to discuss personnel with Planning, Zoning and Environmental Health Director Sharon Omstead. No action was taken.

  •  discussed a change order for the transfer station.
  •  heard CDBG applications and approved four of them
  •  there were no public comments
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