Road & Bridge to replace half of 150 missing road signs

The Marion County Commission met Thursday, Jan. 31, in a payday meeting that paid out $793,196 in expenses.

County Clerk Carol Maggard reported sales tax money received at $46,782, more than a $3,000 increase over the $43,269 received in January a year ago.

She reported total encumbered funds at $115,168.

Acting Road and Bridge Director John Summerville reported that owners of one ranch contacted in the southern part of the county have courteously agreed to remove posts from road right-of-way as requested to avoid them becoming a possible accident liability or public safety issue for the county.

The posts were used to close the road for herding cattle, he said.

Now Summerville is waiting to hear from another ranch in the northern part of the county.

Dennis Maggard, road and bridge signs foreman, said he is putting together an order for replacing half of the county?s 150 missing road name signs.

Most of them are gone either because of theft or vandalism, he said. One of the more commonly stolen signs are those for Mustang Road, he said.

The commissioners said they have rejected changing the names of the roads to stem thefts, although Maggard smilingly took a suggestion from a news reporter to change Mustang to Mule.

Maggard favors reflective aluminum replacement signs with 6-inch lettering, he said.

Planning and Zoning Director Bobbi Strait and County Appraiser Cindy Magill discussed a situation where one of two homes situated beside each other in a rural area is being used for a commercial purpose.

In rezoning the commercially used home, Strait said it becomes difficult if ownership changes to rezone it back to residential again. It can be done though, she said.

Magill was working on taxation for commercial use rather than rural-residential.

The commissioners approved forgiving the increase to commercial tax rate for 2006, but collecting the increased rate for 2007 and 2008.

The commissioners approved an $18,202.40 area fuel bid for Cardie Oil Co. of Tampa over a competitive bid of $18,411.25 from Cooperative Grain & Supply of Hillsboro.

The commissioners spent time in executive session for personnel in two 10-minute sessions by themselves, for a half-hour with Lanell Hett, transport director for the elderly department, for a half-hour with Jayne Gottschalk, director for the elderly department, and for five minutes with Summerville.

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