The Marion County Transfer Station does attract attention from neighboring counties and garbage haulers who have made inquiries as to whether Marion County might sell it, Rollin Schmidt, director of the station, told Marion County Commissioners Friday at the payday meeting.
The transfer station attracts them because it's well put together, and could aid them as a backup point and new delivery point, he said.
But as yet, nobody in Marion County is ready to sell it.
The commissioners said such a decision would definitely have to be to the benefit of Marion County residents.
Schmidt said one of the things the county will have to deal with at the station eventually is development of a Kansas Department of Health and Environment schedule to force disposers of solid waste to put less into landfills.
This would likely require greater future efforts at recycling, he said.
The value of one mill for taxation climbed from $97,600 last year to $98,650 this year, according to figures released by County Clerk Carol Maggard.
The county valuation climbed to $98,652,112 by the end of the month.
Maggard reported the payday pay-out figure at $878,401.74.
She said the county still has $29,417.17 in 2005 encumbered funds.
The latest sales tax received, she said, is a new record high for monthly sales tax receipts for everything since before 2000. It is $45,795.95 on sales made in April, collected by the state in May, and distributed to the counties in June.
County Treasurer Jeannine Bateman reported the county cash on hand as of May 30 at $11,283,208.26, although she distributed $2,035,282.90 of that to taxing entities.
Bateman turned $48,287.52 of special auto funds collected during the last year to the county general fund. The commissioners thanked her because jurisdiction over disposition of those funds is hers under state law.
Peggy Blackman, who works through the Natural Resource Conservation Service for improvement of Marion Reservoir, said she received notice Monday of approval of a $175,000 grant administered by KDHE to study what is needed for abatement of sedimentation and the blue-green algae problem at the Reservoir.
The grant will require 40 percent matching funds, she said, a portion of which she will seek from the county.
Researchers at Kansas State University plan to search out main-point pollution factors even before study begins, she said.
Extension Agent Rickey Roberts told commissioners his department is seeking a 5 percent increase in budget that includes a 3 percent increase for such things as salaries and travel mileage. He will try to offset a part of postage increases by greater "efficiency in using the Web."
The commissioners awarded a $16,263.60 area fuel bid to Cardie Oil of Tampa over a competitive bid of $16,491.30 from Cooperative Grain & Supply of Hillsboro.
The Cardie bid included 800 gallons of diesel in Area 1 at $2.472 a gallon for $1,977.60, 2,150 gallons of diesel in Area 2 at $2.472 a gallon for $5,314.80, 1,800 gallons diesel in Area 3 at $2.492 a gallon for $4,485.60 and the same figures in Area 4 as in Area 3.
The competitive Co-op prices for the same amounts and areas respectively were $2.5260 a gallon, $2,5260 a gallon, $2.5160 a gallon and $2.5160 a gallon.
As the commissioners met, technicians with InfiniTec Inc. did user acceptance testing with 12 new video display county voting machines for visitors from the Kansas Secretary of State's Office in the courthouse basement. Maggard reported all 12 machines passed tests.
