York County Commissioners hold first meeting of new fiscal year

YORK – York County’s new fiscal year began July 1 and this week, the York County Commissioners held their first meeting of that new fiscal year.

With it being the first meeting of the new fiscal year, York County Commissioner Chairman Randy Obermier said the county had a carry-over of roughly $1.9 million – meaning operational funds.
Also it being this time of year, the county had to pay out approximately $300,000 for property and casualty insurance.
Also during this week’s meeting, the commissioners purchased a motorgrader as part of the regular fleet rotation. Each year at this time, the county trades in a motorgrader and purchases a new one.
The county received two bids – one for a Caterpillar from NMC and the other for a John Deere from Murphy Tractor. With trade-in, the total bid from NMC was $347,600 and the total bid from Murphy was $359,167.
York County Highway Superintendent Harvey Keim reviewed the bids and recommended taking the bid from NMC “because of how tight it sounds the budget is going to be, this will save the county $12,000.”
It was also noted the county’s current fleet is made up of half John Deere and half Caterpillar machines. Keim said the fleet is typically half and half, regarding makes and models.
The commissioners agreed with Keim’s recommendation.
“And in the past, we have used inheritance funds to pay for motorgraders, so I think we should do that again,” Obermier said.
“I think we can keep with our history on buying these and use the inheritance funds to purchase this motorgrader,” said Commissioner Daniel Grotz.
Commissioners Andy Bowman and LeRoy said they agreed, with Ott noting, “and by sticking with that, we won’t throw the roads budget out of whack.”
Meanwhile, the budget committee continues to formulate a draft of such which will be brought to the entire county board very soon. The commissioners and elected officials will work on the budget this summer with passage to take place in early fall. Obermier has said he would like to hold some evening workshops for the public, in August, to provide more information as they go through the process.