County bills align to create record-high payday total

The Marion County Com?mission met Wednesday, Oct. 31, for what might have been a record-high $2,549,533 payday session.

County Clerk Carol Maggard said the payouts included large expenditures for such things as road improvement overlay projects, county fair and extension, mental health, the new jail project and endeavors.

Although the monthly session is referred to as ?payday,? it includes many more monthly expenses for the county as well as collections by the county for other local governmental units.

Maggard said in her years as county clerk, she has never seen of a payday figure for Marion County as high as this one.

On the receivables side, Maggard said the county just received its largest collection made for monthly special sales tax for the new jail from the state at $50,169, bringing the total amount collected to date for the jail to $484,011.

The regular sales tax came in at $56,571. Both collections were for sales made in August, collected by the state in September, and disbursed to the county in October.

The county?s consultant on the courthouse roofing project, Greg Leslie of Garland Industries, Overland Park, reported he has checked with a state historical representative, and she was comfortable with the bid of $54,450 from Arrow Roofing of Canton, even though it was far below other bids. The representative said the company has done quality work on other projects.

Leslie said she did ask that the commissioners go with one size smaller on the zinc roofing material chosen for the cupola, which comes closer to the original material used. But they chose not to go with an additional size smaller to match it even more closely because it would add $11,000 to the project.

Leslie?s work came at no additional expense to the county, and Commissioner Roger Fleming said he wanted to thank him publicly for that because without him the commissioners might have been ?clueless? on how to proceed in meeting state guidelines, plus stopping water leak damage.

The commissioners reviewed County Attorney Susan Robson?s proposal to mitigate road damage caused by heavy traffic from oil-drilling vehicles. The proposal would address the current situation and the possibility of additional use when horizontal drilling begins with tentative approval pending state review.

The commissioners noted the approval would also address four-wheeler damage and vandalism to roads when they are muddy resulting in possible heavy fines and jail sentence.

The commissioners approved a driveway for a lot split at 71 Lakeshore Drive at Marion County Lake subject to road and bridge department approval because of lack of access to any other road, and they denied construction of a carport at 15 Lakeshore Drive.

The commissioners approved a competitive road and bridge transfer fuel bid of $26,595 and an area fuel bid of $21,597 from Cooperative Grain & Supply of Hillsboro over competitive bids of $26,980 and $21,935, respectively, from Cardie Oil Inc. of Tampa.

The commissioners met in executive sessions for 15 minutes with Robson and appraiser Cindy Magill for attorney-client privilege, and for 20 minutes for personnel with Diedre Serene, the county?s health department director.

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