The Pacific County Commissioners met Tuesday, July 28 for the regular bi-monthly commissioner's meeting at the Courthouse Annex in South Bend. The commissioners awarded years of service awards to Tammy Engel, for fifteen years with the Department of Community Development and Mike Kelm for twenty five years with the Department of Public Works. After the years of service awards the council approved their consent agenda, which contained the approval of hire of Vinessa Karnofski for Wellspring Coalition Coordinator as well as the hire of Carly Castaneda for Human Services Program Specialist for the Health and Human Services Department. The consent agenda also contained a resignation, Bobbie Jo Bighill has left the Telecommunicator's position at the Sheriff's office.
The vendor claims for Warrant numbers 127949 through 128093 for $301,854.14 were approved as well as the minutes from the previous meeting of July 14 to conclude the consent agenda.
The commissioners approved the request of Wesley Eastham for Spartina Field Technician and Airboat Operator, for vegetation management.
The commissioners next accepted the resignation of Craig Graeber from the Lead Entity Technical Advisory Group, and considered the approval of the appointment of Dustin Bilhimer for the vacant position.
Near the end of the meeting, the Pacific County Commissioners considered the adoption of Resolution 2015-040 that calls for a special election for the annexing of the City of Raymond to the Timberland Regional Library. The commissioners heard from Rick Homchick, Timberland's Business Manager: "Thank you for the opportunity to speak, currently the City of Raymond is our last remaining city who contracts for library services directly with TRL. What this does is puts the vote to the residents of the City of Raymond to pay for library service off their property tax bills, and relieves the general fund for the City of Raymond from that obligation for library services," said Homchick. Homchick went on to say that "The ownership of the facilities will remain with the City of Raymond and the voters will still maintain Timberland Regional Library's services out of that building. So the nature of what the community is receiving will not change, it's just 'who's paying for what' that will change." The amount that the annexation will add to property tax is 41 cents per $1,000 of assessed evaluation.
The next Pacific County Commissioner's meeting will be held Tuesday, August 11 at 9am at the Courthouse Annex.