When the Blaine County Commission met March 20 in regular session, there were a few heads up given to the attendees.
One such notice was that an absentee property owner was having difficulty evicting a lessee who had worn out his welcome. The owner was shocked to learn the lessee, who has been grazing the land for more than 10 years did not bring his cattle off the land each evening and return them to the property the next day. He had spoken at length to the county assessor, who suggested he contact the sheriff’s office and an attorney to continue the process of eviction.
Another upcoming issue came from the sheriff’s office itself. Sheriff Travis Daughtery told the commission that because of the high cost of fuel and the very high cost of housing county inmates at other facilities due to lack of space in the Blaine County Jail, his department was going to experience a budget shortfall. That lead to a round robin discussion of whether the county needed to find a new company to create its budgets.
It was determined that County Clerk Jennifer Haigler should call around to various firms and explore the county’s options. Blaine County Treasurer Donna Hoskins said she would also ask her colleagues at an upcoming training class, to see who other counties used and would recommend.
In other business the commissioners approved six road crossing permits for Devon Energy in District #1, agreed to modify the lease of three pickup trucks in the sheriff’s fleet to a lease/purchase. When the department received the vehicles, the commission was only able to authorize a lease because two commissioners were not seeking re-election. The contract allowed for the modification to a lease purchase sometime after the new commissioners were installed in office. The sheriff’s office will pursue the technicalities of the lease/purchase and present the information to the commission at a later date.
The sheriff also requested $ 10,000 in capital outlay funds for the office be transferred to maintenance and operations. While the move may seem like borrowing from itself, the accounting notation is necessary to keep the expenditures in line with appropriate usage.