County’s major road projects targeted for launch in May

Written by Jerry Engler Tuesday, 01 May 2012 14:59

Marion County’s 2012 resurfacing of 30 miles of road will begin in earnest in May following the Marion County Com­mission meeting Monday.

Besides road and bridge personnel, several representatives from winning contract bidder APAC of Missouri and Kansas, and consulting engineer Jon Riggins of the firm Kirkham Michael in Ellsworth, were present.

Riggins identified the projects as eight miles on 330th at Tampa, five miles east of Peabody on 60th Road, 5.3 miles on 40th at U.S. Highway 77, seven miles on 120th, and shorter stretches.

The commissioners had previously said they wanted to have this big road building project completed at a quality level so the roads would last longer.

Commission Chairman Dan Holub said the commissioners wanted road quality that would last beyond the three-year span for repeating resurfacing that has confounded commissioners previously with limited funding.

But APAC brought up new considerations to confuse the issue again. Company representatives proposed a newly developed pavement material that goes directly down with gravel, and lasts much longer, but at an additional cost of $4 a ton over the price of previously standard materials.

The commissioners authorized trying the new material on the first project—the surfacing at Tampa on 330th.

But that decision was also partly due to the second new consideration: APAC starts at Tampa, and expects to have that construction done in June, but said construction in the southern part of the county won’t be done until September.

They said materials for the northern county construction will come out of Abilene, but materials for southern portions will come from Newton. Other commitments keep the materials from being available until later.

Commissioner Randy Dallke, who represents the southern portion of the county, protested that better roads had been promised his constituents, and he doesn’t want them to have to wait for them until after school has started with the added bus traffic.

Contractors assured Dallke that the September date is conservatively quoted to guard against failure, and they will make every effort to do the job in August.

The commissioners approved a road and bridge area fuel bid from Cooperative Grain & Supply of Hillsboro for $21,857 for 6,550 gallons of diesel over a competitive bid of $22,017 from Cardie Oil Inc. of Tampa.

The commission received a road and bridge paint-striping bid for 33 miles of blacktop for $27,786 ($842 a mile) from Midwest Striping Inc., but delayed a decision.

Concerning new jail construction, bond counsel David Arteberry of Kansas City said the Internal Revenue Service is mandating new record-keeping rules on how bond funds collected are spent to guard against misuse of the tax-exempt income, especially when project needs are already met.

Legally, Arteberry said, county clerk Carol Maggard and any of her successors will be responsible for reporting this to IRS.

The commissioners voted 3-0 to authorize annual tax compliance reporting on the bond issue to the IRS.

The commissioners approved installation of hazardous waste storage cabinets at the transfer station for $3,000 using a Kansas Department of Health and Environment sharing grant for 60 percent of the costs at $1,807 with the county providing the remaining 40 percent.

They approved required state confirmation of the county’s solid waste plans with no changes for the coming year.

The meeting also was a $1,608,666 payday meeting with $49,844 in regular sales tax received and $44,200 in special jail tax received.