Ellsworth County commissioners dealt with a cool situation Monday as they approved a request by Jeremiah Brown of the county EMS department for the purchase of a new ice machine.

Brown said the $3,955 ice machine is capable of producing 400 pounds of ice in 24 hours. He noted several county departments used their former ice machine, which has quit.

Commissioner Kermit Rush said the funds for the purchase would be taken from the county equipment fund.

In other business:

• Rick Nondorf, superintendent of the county road and bridge department, announced he is retiring July 31 after 38 1/2 years as a county employee, 23 1/2 years of them as road and bridge superintendent.

Dale Houston will take over Nondorf ’s duties as superintendent. Nondorf said he should meet with the commissioners to discuss the job ahead.

Nondorf said his crews were behind on mowing, they will be out blading the roads and finishing the bridge at Holyrood Lake.

He said Kirkham Michael will probably have a bid letting on the bridge at 11th Road and Old 40 Highway the first part of August. The estimate for the work is $800,000.

• Jessica Kootz, Clint Laflin, Craig Dinkel and Marcia Gier of the Midway Extension District attended the meeting so that Laflin could introduce Dinkel and Gier to commissioners. Gier is the new 4-H agent. She will be based in Russell. Dinkel is the new horticultural and crops agent. He will be based in Ellsworth. As Midway agents, Dinkel and Gier will serve both Ellsworth and Russell counties.

From June 24:

• According to Shelly Vopat, county clerk, Sheriff Murray Marston said if he loses one more employee the sheriff’s office will not be able to house inmates. Marston said the State of Kansas just provided employees with a 15 percent increase. He said Ellsworth’s hiring pool is low and he would like to increase his jail staff starting wage from $15.40 to $18.26. Commissioners asked Marston if he could run two shifts in the jail as a solution, but Marston said that raised concerns about liability. No action was taken by the commissioners.

• No action was taken after a five minute executive session with Kerianne Ehrlich of the county health department.

Commissioners granted a request by Ehrlich to open the department at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and to close it at 4 p.m. on Fridays as of July 1.

• Representatives of the Ellsworth Senior Center presented the 2020 budget request, At $31,800, it is an increase of 17.8 percent ($4,800) from last year.

• Representatives of the Wilson Senior Center presented the 2020 budget request. At $29,000 it is an increase of 31.8 percent ($7,000) from last year.

• Trudy Berthelson, Sharon Nelson, Terri Parker, Ronny Soukup, Susan Soukup, Marilyn Dumler and Jake Svaty wanted to be heard after learning a housing project planned to build 12 houses in the Canren Addition of the City of Ellsworth. Svaty farms the field next to the location of these houses and believes when he sprays the field he will be the one who receives the calls with complaints. Nelson said it was unethical to not contact the current homeowners to inform them of the meetings that were commencing on this project. Commissioners signed a letter of support for the grant on this project on Jan. 14. At the time, the placement of the houses had not been picked but commissioners supported the houses being built in Ellsworth County.

The next meeting of the Ellsworth County commissioners will be 9 a.m. Monday, July 8, at the county courthouse.