County fair bidding process clarified

McCOOK, Neb. — To comply with state law, new heaters for the Kiplinger Arena will have to be re-bid or purchased directly from a vendor by the private Kiplinger Foundation and donated to the county.

Following an executive session to discuss vendor qualifications, Red Willow County Commission Chairman Ted Gans laid out those two options based on advice from County Attorney Paul Wood.

While the county fair board accepted one bid for the heaters — which was considerably higher than another bid — that process actually should have fallen to the commissioners.

Fair Manager Jiles Bowman explained that the fair operates on three sources: county revenues, the Kiplinger Fund which is included in a Horse Arena fund, and donations from the private Kiplinger Foundation, the later two left by the late Tom Kiplinger, whose generosity built several buildings on the fairgrounds.

Bowman said the horse arena is self-supporting through stall rentals, and hasn’t needed regular donations from the Kiplinger Foundation.

However, Commissioner Randy Dean pointed out, any fund that become part of the county budget must follow state law regarding the bidding process. That requires informal bids for any purchase over $10,000, and formal sealed bids for items over $50,000.

The private Kiplinger Foundation is free to purchase anything from any vendor and donate it to the county, and commissioners only decide whether or not to accept the donation.

The Kiplinger Foundation isn’t registered as a non-profit, however, so it would have to pay sales tax on any purchases, however, which was seen as penalizing an organization that was trying to serve the public.

Dean suggested to a representative present at Monday’s meeting that the foundation should check into nonprofit status again.

Earlier in the meeting, Dean pulled an item from the consent agenda, asking for clarification about reports and appointments to boards. Following discussion, the item, reappointment of Misti Soderlund to the Health Board, was approved unanimously.

During a lull in the meeting, Gans asked whether the County Health Department might consider purchasing a couple of radon testing devices since the Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department had sold its devices and no longer conducted such tests.

He said the small charcoal home testing devices were not as accurate.

Since the item was not on the agenda, no action was taken.

SWNPHD Director Myra Stoney said that the department no longer does radon testing, but encourages citizens to find test kits online to test their homes.

She said the health department started testing in 2005 or 2006 as no one was testing in the area.

There are now three or four measurement specialists in the SWNPHD area now, including two in McCook, and one or two radon mitigation specialists in the area, Stoney said.

Mitigation specialists actually take steps to reduce the amount of radon in a home.