Commissioners support scholarships, equipment requests

At its Jan. 19 meeting, the Board of County Commissioners met with Mattie Haney, representing the Northeastern Junior College Foundation. She spoke about the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative and requested a letter of support from the board. She explained that Northeastern Junior College can apply for state-funded Matching Student Scholarship grants that help off-set costs of student attendance such as tuition and fees, books, room and board, etc. The NJC Foundation raises funds to provide the match funding. It applies to serve as the COSI grantee for each county in its service area. On behalf of NJC, it awards each county’s COSI allocation for scholarships to that county’s students.

The COSI state law was enacted in 2014. Haney noted that the Foundation has been annually awarded Phillips County’s COSI grant allocation since 2015-16. Last year, $6, 051 in scholarships were awarded to six county students. This year the allocation is $14,216.

At the commissioner’s request, Haney agreed to verify if home-schooled students are aware of and eligible for scholarships and can be if not. Later in the meeting the board authorized the chairman to sign the COSI letter of support.

The Board approved equipment purchases that department managers prioritized in their 2024 budget requests. Purchased for the landfill will be a rotary mower from 21st Century for $16,389.40 and a scraper with lift and kilts from Central Plains Equipment for $6,725. The maintenance department will purchase a mower from Kurtzer’s for $14,284. The sheriff’s office will purchase a 2023 Ram Crew Cab truck for $40,830.

Sealed bids for two portable lights were opened and awarded to the only two bidders who each bid for only one of the two lights available.

The board approved Resolution 2024-01-19-01 to support a Northeast Colorado regional RAISE grant application for road and street pre-construction planning. The RAISE acronym stands for the federal Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity funding. It is intended for capital investments in surface transportation.

Approved motions included payment of a $27,143.75 invoice for microfiche imaging in the county clerk’s office and two invoices to retain Simon Contractors for $6,198.99 in 2023 and $23,500 in 2024.

As a matter of routine, Deputy Treasurer Crystal Oakley was approved to be an authorized signer for Phillips County banking business.