Atchison County commissioners set 2025 organizational rules, approve budget calendar and culvert contract

Atchison County commissioners met in special session Monday, Jan. 13, 2025, and approved a slate of organizational items for the year, including leadership roles, committee assignments, financial-authority limits for department heads, travel and reimbursement rates, and a contract award for a road culvert replacement.

The board, during the organizational portion of the meeting, nominated and approved its 2025 leadership and committee assignments, adopted a schedule of regular meetings and workshops, and set administrative policies intended to standardize county operations for the year. Commissioners also passed two resolutions, one waiving certain GAAP preparation requirements for county financial reports and another authorizing participation in the state Rural Opportunity Zone student loan repayment program.

Those actions, the board said, are intended to create predictable timelines for county business, align local expense and reimbursement rules with state practice, and provide a framework for county participation in state matching programs meant to help local employers recruit professionals. On a separate agenda item the board accepted the recommendation of the road-and-bridge superintendent and awarded the Ottawa Road Phase 1 culvert-replacement contract to Tonks Construction of Cameron, Missouri, for $175,000.63.

Most organizational items were approved unanimously. The board approved workshop and meeting times for 2025, keeping a department-head workshop at 9 a.m. Tuesdays followed by the regular meeting at 10 a.m. until business is finished. It approved the 2025 holiday schedule as presented and set a Columbus Day employee training day for Oct. 13, 2025. The board named Exchange Bank and Trust, UMB, and Union State Bank of Everest as eligible depositories and accepted a formal recommendation from Treasurer Connie Ellerman naming Exchange Bank and Trust as the county's main depository for 2025.

On personnel and purchasing rules the board set…