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Township
dispute leads to clerk’s resignation
Wayne White | Managing Editor
Less than six months after Junction Township elected two new board
members, a third board member has resigned. After saying they were
reluctant to accept township clerk Virgil Scheid’s resignation,
the Osage County commissioners voted unanimously to do so at Monday’s
commission meeting. Shortly afterward, the commissioners appointed
Don Croy to fill the vacant position.
The resignation came amid discussion of a letter sent to the commissioners
by Junction Township trustee Chuck Trautman.
In the letter, Trautman and his wife, Janet, who is treasurer of
the township, asked the commissioners to expedite placing stop signs
at the intersection of 189th Street and Stubbs Road, citing dangerous
conditions.
An addendum to the letter noted that Scheid had refused to sign
checks or documents during recent township meetings.
“I have asked Mr. Virgil Scheid for his resignation …”
Chuck Trautman wrote. “He is not discharging his duties of
clerk for which the taxpayers compensate him and is an embarrassment
to this board of road commissioners of Junction Township.”
Scheid told the commissioners he had refused to sign the letter
sent to them.
“He’s asking me to resign because I wouldn’t sign
that thing,” Scheid said. “It’s a ‘nastygram’.
I don’t like ‘nastygrams’.”
Scheid said he had also refused to sign some of the township’s
checks because he had requested but not received documentation from
the Trautmans.
Scheid said he was submitting his resignation to the county commission.
“He cannot force you to resign,” said Osage County Commissioner
Ken Kuykendall. “It doesn’t mean you have to do it.”
“I can’t stand this harassment,” Scheid told the
commissioners. “He wants to get rid of me, I’m a thorn
in his side. Every meeting, he’s got something to downgrade
me. I’m through with that, I’m too old for that.”
Questioned by Kuykendall whether he was sure he wanted to resign,
Scheid said, “Oh yes, it’s going to be the death of
me.”
Voting unanimously, the commission accepted Scheid’s resignation,
but not before hearing from Croy, who urged them not to accept it.
“He’s the only recourse we’ve got on that board
right now other than the husband and wife,” Croy said. “[Scheid]
was looking out for the taxpayers.”
With county counselor Delton Gilliland offering clarification of
the commission’s authority to appoint, it was noted that previous
township board appointments were usually done on the recommendation
of township board members. Gilliland said the commissioners were
not bound by any third party’s recommendation.
Croy offered to fill the vacant position, and on a motion from Osage
County Commissioner Mike Pruitt, the commission unanimously approved
Croy’s appointment as Junction Township clerk.
Commissioners also fielded complaints about the Trautmans during
Monday’s meeting.
Croy complained about current road maintenance procedures that have
left a road adjacent to his house in worse condition than it was
previously. He said the Trautmans were currently under investigation
due to the manner and the amount they were paying themselves for
services provided to the township, saying Janet Trautman had paid
herself for making bank deposits.
“It looks like to me they’re using this township deal
as a source of income,” Croy said.
He also complained of the township’s recent expenditures.
“[Chuck Trautman] is definitely squandering taxpayers’
money,” Croy said.
Contacted Tuesday, Chuck Trautman confirmed that he had provided
township financial records upon request to an Osage County Sheriff’s
deputy a few weeks ago, but was unsure of the reason for an investigation.
He said any accusations of improper payments are “totally
false.”
“We’ve done nothing, we’ve been accountable,”
Trautman said.
He said Junction Township board members are paid $120 per meeting,
but his wife had not charged the township for making bank deposits.
Commissioners also heard from Robert Scheid, trustee of Fairfax
Township. He said the two townships had a prior cooperative agreement
to maintain each other’s roads on either side of Pomona Lake.
That agreement no longer exists after Chuck Trautman came to a Fairfax
Township meeting, Robert Scheid said.
“He came to our meeting and told us everything we were doing
was stupid and things like that, so we just kind of broke away,”
he said. “We don’t do anything with them anymore.”
Osage County Commissioner Carl Meyer asked if any of the half dozen
spectators wished to speak in support of the Trautmans, but received
no response. But a letter from Chuck Sypher, vice president of the
South Shore Homeowners Association, was presented to the commission.
In the letter, Sypher said the association supported Chuck Trautman’s
efforts to improve township roads. Sypher pointed to the improvements
to Vassar Drive that serves the South Shore area.
Spectators noted the work on Vassar Drive had been done in a cooperative
effort of Fairfax and Junction townships and the county –
before the Trautmans were elected.
“We worked together on that hill, Fairfax was right there
to help us,” Virgil Scheid said. “But we can’t
do that anymore.”
In addition to the complaints about Scheid, Trautmans’ letter
complained of a two-month process needed before stop signs can be
placed at a township intersection.
In discussion of placing stop signs at 189th Street and Stubbs Road,
county road supervisor Glen Tyson said he had advised Chuck Trautman
of the procedure that includes a formal request and an engineer’s
study of the intersection, and finally a resolution approved by
the county commission. Advisory signs can be placed by townships
on township roads, but regulatory signs require approval of the
county commission, Tyson explained.
Kuykendall questioned, “What’s the difference between
that intersection and the 800 and some other intersections in all
the townships?”
He said it would be cost prohibitive for the county to study and
place stop signs at every intersection.
Pruitt said he did not believe the intersection warranted traffic
control.
“There just isn’t a whole lot of traffic there,”
Pruitt said. “I’ve been on the fire department for six
years now, and we’ve never had an emergency call for that
intersection for a bad accident. I’m not saying there wasn’t
an accident there, but for someone hurt, we’ve never been
called.”
In Trautman’s letter, he said the township had placed yield
signs at the intersection and intended to place signs warning of
a dangerous intersection.
“I guess we’re informing the township board those are
illegal signs,” Kuykendall said of the yield signs.
Tyson said “Dangerous Intersection” signs should be
a sufficient warning at the intersection.
In other business, the commission:
• finalized a lease-purchase agreement for four Chevrolet
Impalas for the Osage County Sheriff’s Office. The vehicles
were purchased from Branine Chevy Buick at a cost of $71,270. The
county financed approximately $70,000 of the purchase through Citizens
State Bank, of Lyndon.
• heard from Sherri Coffman regarding bids for windows at
the Vassar Community Center. Commissioners asked Osage County Economic
Development Director Stephanie Watson to search for grants to possibly
fund the window replacement.
• called a special meeting for Tuesday morning for an
emergency management class to give officials an overview of incident
command in event of an emergency.
• approved the purchase of a Dell computer from Infinitec
at a cost of $1,203.50, for Osage County Economic Development. |
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