County commission approves sander purchase

The Lake County Commission has approved the purchase of a new sander for the county’s Highway Department.  Highway Superintendent Nels Nelson told Lake County Commissioners Thursday that he thought he’d be able to buy used sanders from the state Department of Transportation surplus, but they did not have any this year because of the pandemic.  He told commissioners that he needed to replace one of the department’s sanders this fall and the cheapest new one he could find was close to 14-thousand-500 dollars.  Commissioners approved Nelson’s purchase of the new sander and asked that he work with County Auditor Paula Barrick on where the money would need to come from in his department’s budget. 

Also during their meeting Thursday, county commissioners agreed to have Commission Administrative Officer Shelli Gust look into purchasing tablets or laptops for commissioners to use if they ever needed to move to meeting remotely.  Gust said that she  had received information from First District Association of Local Governments that technology used to conduct business meetings remotely has been reimbursable through the CARES Act funding that the county has been allocated.  Gust said she will bring quotes for the commission’s consideration to its next meeting.  She said that the county’s CARES Act funding has to be spent by the end of December.  

County commissioners approved one personnel item during their Thursday meeting.  They approved a status change for Chris Downs with the county’s Equalization Office.  Downs has met all the requirements to be a Certified Appraiser Assessor, so Equalization Director Rick Becker asked that his wage be increased from $15.71 to $16.71 an hour, effective October 1st.