The Board of Stephens County Commissioners hit the ground running when they opened business on Tuesday morning after the New Year’s holiday.
Chairman Kreg Murphree opened the meeting and county officials checked off a few routine business items prior to approving a fiscal recovery funds expenditure documentation form to authorize the use of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds to pay purchase orders for the Assessor’s Aerial Imagery Project for $105,482.12.
In a past meeting on Dec. 19, the board discussed the aerial imagery project to include a ChangeFinder — Change Detection and Building Outline Software add-on as part of the approved ARPA plan for Stephens County, which was previously talked about and approved on Aug. 1, 2022.
Next, county officials discussed the a resolution to designate an official board member and alternate to the Circuit Engineering District 6 Board of Directors.
The board voted to adopt the resolution naming Russell Morgan as representative and Kreg Murphree as the alternate.
As the meeting progressed, Morgan updated the board on the busy weekend they had at the Stephens County Fairgrounds this past weekend.
Morgan said they had a great turnout over the weekend with Marlow’s Winter Classic’s pig show.
“Bull riding this weekend,” he said. “It’s not going to let up for the next month or so.”
Morgan said in preparation for the upcoming shows, they will be busy cleaning and sanitizing each one of the pens.
“They sanitize that with that chemical called Tek-Trol that’s been recommended by the vets,” he said.
Morgan said they have a lot of different animals from all over the state and assured the board the proper sanitizing measures continue to be used at the fairgrounds.
Next, Morgan discussed with commissioners about the ARPA funds and projects.
Morgan said nothing has changed on the encumbered projects since previous discussion and since approval, the aerial imagery project for the Assessor’s is encumbered.
“We’re sitting there at $673,258.12,” Morgan said of the allocated funds.
According to Morgan, they have yet to approve the fairgrounds’ upgrade numbers by the board.
“Some point in time in the near future, we’re going to have to discuss that project and then also, last week, we kind of discussed spending some on The Banner building and the courthouse,” he said.
Morgan said they will also work on an alternative plan for the fairgrounds as well.
In other news, the board approved:
• Two fairground agreements: One for the Sigma Nu Bull Riding event on Jan. 7, 2023, at the Stephens County Arena and one for a birthday party on Jan. 28, 2023, in the Heritage Room.
The next regular meeting of the Stephens County Board of County Commissioners will convene at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 9 at the Stephens County Courthouse.
For more about topics discussed during new business at the Stephens County Commissioners meeting, see future editions of The Duncan Banner.
