Moisture from storm ends county burn ban

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JERRY ENGLER
by Jerry Engler

Snow and ice ended the county’s burn ban-but caused a few other concerns for the Marion County Commission’s Friday payday session.

Dale Snelling, Marion County Park and Lake superintendent, said the heated fishing dock at the lake was overloaded with ice at the north end, causing it to sink at one end and the other end teeter-tottering higher. Fishermen were continuing to use it, and Snelling said had the heat turned up, hoping to help melt the ice faster.

“That hasn’t happened in 30 years,” Snelling said. “What I’m most scared of is the possibility it might buckle or break in the middle.”

He said he might try to chisel some ice off.

The commissioners voted 3-0 to affirm the decision by Emergency Management Director Michelle Abbott-Becker earlier in the week to lift the burn ban.

The commissioners “reluctantly” received news from Sheriff Lee Becker that Undersheriff Bob Soyez was submitting his retirement effective Feb. 1 due to health reasons.

Becker said Soyez had been with the department more than 11 years, beginning in May 1990 as a deputy, and becoming undersheriff in April 1995.

Commission Chair Bob Hein told Road and Bridge Director Gerald Kelsey he had received “a lot of compliments” on the way the county crew had cleared snow and ice off the roads.

Kelsey said unfortunately the compliments are always balanced with complaints. He said the storm left a difficult-to-clean residue with different layers of ice.

The commissioners approved a plan from Kelsey to have the firm of Brown and Brown use its portable plant to prepare 10,000 tons of cold mix seal using county-owned millings at a cost of $140,500 for road surfacing.

They awarded an area fuel bid to Cooperative Grain & Supply of $4,287 for four areas.

County Clerk Carol Maggard reported the November county sales tax receipt was $34,571.66, down $7,312.54 from a year ago. She said the December figure for 2001 also was in the neighborhood of $42,000, and it looked “like it would have to go a ways” to come up to that this year.

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