Hill County Commission puts levy to replace Beaver Lodge on 2022 ballot

Hill County Commission approved Thursday a question to go on this year’s general election ballot asking voters if they will approve a levy to replace the Beaver Creek Park Beaver Lodge at Camp Kiwanis.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said the Hill County Park Board has been looking into repairing the current lodge for some time now, and as they have researched prices and the damage to the structure they found that replacing it makes more economic sense then repairing it at this point.

The levy would apply to all property owners in the county and would be for three mils, the equivalent of $4.05 a year on a property worth $100,000, a levy that would go away once the project was completed.

The commission voted unanimously to put the question on this year’s ballot, with Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean saying the lodge has had issues for as long as she’s been a commissioner and must be addressed.

The commission also unanimously approved language that will go on the ballot for another question, whether the county should impose a 3 percent tax on medical and recreational marijuana products sold by dispensaries in Hill County.

The tax would effectively be a 3 percent sales tax on these items, so non-users will not pay anything.

The resolution to put the question on the ballot was approved unanimously by the commission last week, but they did not include the exact language that would go on the ballot, necessitating a separate vote on the language Thursday.

Hill County Commissioner Jake Strissel said, in the course of researching other counties that implemented this three percent tax, the highest tax the state will allow, 24 out of the 26 counties where the drug became legal this year put the possibility of taxing medical and recreational marijuna in the same question.

After passing these two resolutions the county also had a lengthy discussion about a credit card policy that was approved by the commission unanimously after a couple minor revisions.

Department heads for several years had asked that their departments be issued cards they could use on expenses instead of paying out-of-pocket and asking for reimbursement, especially for out-of-town travel. The commissioners agreed in April to get one card for the county under the management of Hill County Auditor Kathy Olson, with the intention to eventually approve more.

Since then the commission has been discussing setting up policies for the credit cards, but when they attempted to pass one a couple months ago Hill County Attorney Lacey Lincoln objected, saying she wanted to see the policy before they voted on it and that other department heads should be given the opportunity to go over it as well.

Since that time, Lincoln has been working on a draft for the policy, taking feedback from department heads and updating the document.

At Thursday’s meeting she presented the policy draft for the commission’s approval, but before it was given a few concerns were addressed.

One concern was over a mention of gas for travel in county vehicles being something that is prohibited from being purchased with the cards, which Hill County Treasurer Sandy Brown said seemed like an unnecessary restriction.

She said people who start traveling for county business on weekends don’t always have a chance to get ahold of the gas cards they would normally use to pay for fuel, a concern that was dismissed by McLean.

“It’s called preplaning,” she said.

Brown said even with proper planning, people sometimes can’t get the card and being able to pay for fuel with the credit card if they have it seems sensible.

She also said that she’s had gas cards not work, necessitating she pay for gas herself.

Lincoln and McLean said they’ve never had that happen, but Hill County Clerk and Recorder Sue Armstrong said she’s had them not work before as well.

After some discussion the group considered removing language about fuel being a prohibited purchase from the policy entirely and examining how fuel for county vehicles is paid for as a separate policy issue.

Eventually, though the commission opted continue prohibiting fuel purchases with the credit card.

After this discussion the commission and county officials discussed the policy requiring department heads to check whether they are purchasing from a list of established vendors kept by the county.

McLean said Hill County Auditor Kathy Olson requested that mention of the list be removed, and that the policy read that people should verify with her that they are purchasing from a vendor with accounts payable established.

She said Olson wants mention of the list removed because “The list is going to get forgotten in a book and will change.”

Lincoln said a list of established vendors needs to be kept somewhere for the sake of everyone making purchases for Hill County.

“If, heaven forbid, (Olson) died on a random Wednesday, so when we come in Thursday and ask ‘Who are our vendors?’, we have no ability to know, we would have to call every single person that the county uses to try to determine if they are an established vendor,” she said. “ … It has to be written down somewhere.”

She also said having to have someone call Olson every time someone makes a purchase will just ensure that the auditor gets 15 more calls a day since many people, herself included, don’t know off the top of their heads what is an established vendor and what isn’t.

Brown and Armstrong agreed, saying the list really should be accessible by all department heads.

Peterson said he was concerned about the complexity of having to email every department a document that changes as time goes on but Lincoln, Brown and Armstrong offered a number of ways that a list could be maintained on a server or webpage that departments can check when they need.

“I don’t care how the list is shared, there just needs to be a list,” Lincoln said.

McLean said she thinks everyone is overthinking the issue and there are vendors they’ve been using for years and years.

Lincoln did not agree.

“I know that Kathy Olson doesn’t want (the list),” she said. “ … but that’s Kathy’s responsibility as the auditor.”

After this discussion the commission passed the policy, which will allow department heads to have their own county credit cards.

Lincoln said there will be a training session for everyone to get on the same page regarding how the system works in the near future.