News editor
Kirkham Michael engineering provided an updated estimate for the cost to overlay 2 inches of blacktop on 25 miles of county roads. Because of an increase in oil prices, the projected cost increased about $700,000 to $3 million.
The roads planned for overlays are 120th between K-15 and Indigo, 60th between Peabody and Timber, 40th between Timber and U.S. 77, and 330th west of K-15.
Commissioner Randy Dallke said the project is important enough that the county needs to find the funding, even with the increased cost.
Commissioner Roger Fleming said the county could do just part now with the hope that oil prices go down in the future, but it could cost even more if oil prices continue to rise over the upcoming year.
The commission voted to set the project for bidletting at 1 p.m. March 28. The bid specifications will include 60th as the base bid, with the other three roads as alternate bids.
In other business:
- Cardie Oil Company of Tampa will provide 2,950 gallons of fuel for Road and Bridge Department at a price of $9,826; Cooperative Grain and Supply of Hillsboro bid $9,853. Cooperative Grain and Supply will supply 3,600 gallons of fuel for $12,006; Cardie Oil Company bid $12,100.
- National Sign Company of Ottawa will provide 658 various road signs for $4,123. D.C. Wholesale of Concordia bid $4,362, Newman Traffic Signs of Jamestown, N.D., bid $5,022, and Hall Signs Incorporated of Bloomington, Ind., bid $4621.
- General sales tax received in February for December sales was $50,494, down almost 16 percent from the previous year. That brings the two-month total of sales tax received for the year to $104,189, down almost 9 percent from 2011.
- Jail sales tax receipts for the month were $44,776, bringing the six-month total since the tax began to $278,915.
- A grant application for funds to help replace courthouse windows was rejected, County Clerk Carol Maggard said.
- South Central Kansas Economic Development District turned over the former Holiday Motel in Florence to the county to be sold at auction for back property taxes.
- The county received a $10,000 grant from the Kansas Bureau of Water-Watershed Management Section. To receive the grant, the county must provide a match of $6,667.
- Encumbered fund balances totaling $56,865 were returned to the general fund.
- Minutes of the Feb. 6 and 13 meetings were approved.
- Emergency Communications Department will purchase furniture for the new law enforcement facility for a cost of $7,578 from Wright Line. The furniture includes a break room table, lockers, and office furniture.
- Families and Communities Together Director Linda Ogden and Marion County Drug Abuse Prevention Taskforce member Noreen Weems spoke to the commission about folding the taskforce into FACT to administer special alcohol tax returned to the county by the state. The county receives approximately $7,000 per year for drug and alcohol abuse prevention. The commission approved directing the money to the taskforce in care of FACT.
- Six months of experience shows that almost every county-provided recycling site is costing more than the amount saved by not sending recyclables to Butler County Landfill, Transfer Station Director Rollin Schmidt said. Only Goessel is roughly breaking even. The commission voted to continue the program until July 1, at which time communities recycling too little will lose their sites.