Alva Review-Courier -

Mike Roach, one of the Alfalfa County commissioners, was absent from their meeting on Monday, but Garret Johnson and Nate Ross were there and heard from Cherokee city manager Chad Roach, who was on hand to ask for help cleaning up a burned-down house in town.

The house, near the high school, burned down almost two years ago and is not only an eyesore, the city manager said, but it could pose a danger to kids passing by. Roach said he wishes to have the mess cleared up before high school graduation, and Johnson and Ross said they would help to get it done.

After the two commissioners signed approval on the previous meeting minutes, maintenance and operation warrants for payment, and blanket purchase orders, they looked at some paperwork from the district attorney regarding officers' salaries.

County clerk Laneta Schwerdtfeger explained that a couple of years ago, the state legislature passed a bill to force county elected officials in all 77 counties to take a $5,000 pay raise.

"We did not have the money at that time, so we talked back and forth with Brian Mitchell, our ADA here, and Chris Boring, the DA in our district," she said, adding that Boring told them that if every officer in their county opted not to take the raise, they needed a signed resolution saying so.

Not everyone has signed it, Schwedtfeger said, and stated it's an all-or-none deal; if one person doesn't sign it, everyone has to take the raise.

"According to statutes," Schwerdtfeger continued, "you cannot take a raise in the middle of your term, but it doesn't state any of that in the new legislation."

The issue has caused confusion throughout every county in the state. A few elected officials in Alfalfa County who started in 2023 took the raise at the beginning of the third term, and now they are trying to figure out what to do with the others, the county clerk said.

After that discussion, Johnson and Ross signed documents for the 911 monthly meeting to change from 8 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and followed that by approving a private property access easement. The easement is in District 3 for Block 37, Lots 19-21 of Helena Original, and was approved to remove concrete from the owner's property to place in county road washouts.

Next, the two men declared surplus on a Dell 22-inch computer monitor from the election board office (Invoice No. SL220-222.1B, Serial No. VN-0CM9TJ-QDV00-313-0FJU) and signed a resolution for its disposal.

Before the meeting adjourned, Johnson and Ross signed a corrective action plan per 2 CFR § 200.511c regarding audit findings follow-up for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021.

Elias Stonehocker, who is running against Mike Roach for District 2 Alfalfa County commissioner, observed the meeting from the gallery.