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Chase County commissioners elect Tony Hazleton chair, Matt Miller vice chair; approve depositories and appointments
Summary
At its Jan. 12 reorganizational meeting, the Chase County Commission elected Tony Hazleton as chair and Matt Miller as vice chair, approved county depositories, an official newspaper and administrative rates, and confirmed annual appointments for department heads and board representatives.
Unidentified Speaker 3 called the Jan. 12 meeting of the Chase County commissioners to order and led the pledge of allegiance before opening reorganizational business.
The board voted by voice to elect Tony Hazleton chair and Matt Miller vice chair for 2026 after nominations and seconding on the floor. "I'll make a motion to nominate Tony Hazleton for the chairman of the board for 2026," said Unidentified Speaker 3 during the nomination, and the motion carried by voice vote.
Following elections, commissioners debated and then approved a slate of administrative designations and routine policy items by a single motion. The board approved Cottonwood Valley Bank, Chase County Citizen State Bank of Cottonwood Falls, and the state municipal investment pool as official depositories; named a local weekly as the county's official newspaper (transcript reference: "House Grove Republican" in the motion); designated Driggs Design Group Incorporated as county land surveyor; set the reimbursable mileage rate at 72.5 cents per mile; set a meal allowance of $30 per day for mandatory overnight travel; and adopted the 2026 holiday calendar and commissioner meeting schedule (the motion noted a clerical correction to a mistakenly labeled year in the packet).
Unidentified Speaker 3 also read and the board approved annual appointments and board representative designations including: Scott Harris as EMS director; Scott Wilsey as emergency preparedness director, sanitation supervisor and floodplain manager; Steve Fillmore as county fire chief; Charles Swift as noxious weed director; Tom Kirk as road and bridge supervisor; Jean Line as the board representative to the Lyon-Chase County Solid Waste Committee; Jacob Welsh as detention facility administrator; Deb Haglund as senior center director; and Bernice Albers as county treasurer and county financial officer. The board additionally confirmed representatives to regional committees and roles identified in the packet.
The approvals were completed by voice votes with motions seconded on the floor. No roll-call tallies were recorded in the transcript. The board discussed minor clerical edits to some packet language and noted those would be corrected before final signing.
The meeting moved on to general business after these reorganizational actions.
