Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana

No decision made on ambulance lease

A hard deadline was set at the Whitehall Town Council meeting Monday night to renew the lease with Community Beacon of Hope Inc. (CBOH). The deadline is set to take place at a special council meeting on July 17, 2017 at 7 p.m.

Elizabeth Musik said the Town Attorney’s office just received the updated draft from CBOH’s attorney for a new lease agreement on Monday, 20 days after it was requested causing significant delays in the process to negotiate a new lease with CBOH.

Alderman Mac Smith voiced concerns about leasing the building and equipment since there were outstanding bills left to be paid by CBOH. Smith also said he was concerned about the payment that the town has on the ambulance barn, and questioned whether the town can be paid for the rent of the building during negotiations of the lease agreement.

Musik responded that the town could not receive money for the building until a lease agreement has been approved, and any terms on the new lease would be retroactive for two months and due next Monday.

Jamie Rawson of CBOH provided a check to the town for the past due bill and insured the council CBOH would able to pay the retroactive payment of rent next Monday.

Council discussed the personnel manual verbiage on the weapons policy.

“Our town employees have a right to be able to defend themselves, “ Alderman Tom Jenkin suggested.

Town Clerk/Treasurer Summer Fellows said there was an incident about three weeks ago that caused for an evacuation of Town Hall.

Jenkins proposed for the Town Attorney’s office to check with the town’s insurance company (MMIA) about allowing the verbiage to exclude weapons such as pepper spray for the town employees to have, but not to include firearms in the update of the manual.

In the renewal of the manual, town employees are not to have any unauthorized weapons on town property or while conducting town business.

Musik said the insurance company would have to approve the change on the manual before eliminating some of the verbiage, and council should be aware MMIA may not cover town employees if they change the verbiage if the town employee was found at fault. Musik said she would contact MMIA to discuss the verbiage of the personnel manual and will be able to discuss the tabled manner at Monday’s special meeting.

The colloquy of correct Ward zoning was a topic at the Monday night meeting. Mayor Dale Davis said some voters are listed in Ward 1 that should be in Ward 2 and Jefferson County does not have the correct zones outlined on file.

Musik said she would be working with Bonnie Ramey Clerk and Recorder/Assessor/Election Administrator for Jefferson County to bring the Wards up to date since it has been quite some time since they were updated with the county.

Council tabled resolution 2017-1 for Jefferson County Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plan. The plan is an update that has been in place for quite some time and is a Federal requirement that must be updated every 5 years to apply for grants in the case of a disaster.

Doug Dodge, Manager for Jefferson County Disaster and Emergency Services, said the plan has been approved by the State of Montana and FEMA.

“This document lays out risk in the Town of Whitehall and all of Jefferson County. The plan isn’t a response to a disaster, it is a prevention plan,” Dodge said.

Council members agreed they would like to have time to read over it and possibly make changes as they did not have proper time before the meeting. Dodge said Jefferson County and Boulder have already adopted and approved the plan.

“It is a flexible plan and nothing is set in stone, “ Dodge said about the public document.

Dodge said the public could read the plan by going to www. countypdm.com, selecting Jefferson County and typing in the password boulder.

 

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