BY TONY FURSE | April 19, 2023

In addition to covering the monetary balance for memorial highway signs and conducting an on-site landfill observation, both reports located elsewhere in this issue, Linn County commissioners approved a matching fund offer to replace an air unit at the Blue Mound Senior Center.

At Monday’s weekly Commission meeting, Shaun West, public works field administrator, reported that the East Central Kansas Area Agency on Aging (ECKAAA) has available funding with a 40 percent match toward senior centers.

“We will need to replace that unit within two seasons, so I’d advise to do it now with the match,” West recommended. 

The unanimous decision has the county allocating $4,644 toward the estimated total of $7,740 combined material/labor for the unit, with ECKAAA’s match to be $3,096. West said the county had previously used the Ottawa-based agency’s match program for a similar replacement at Centerville.

Two other public works expenditure items were placed on hold pending additional information.

Speaking to the replacement of rotting landscape timbers to contain surface gravel at the courthouse parking lot, West presented material costs of $1,440 to replace the timbers with stone and $1,904 for gravel replacement, with labor to be done in-house.

Asked by Danny McCullough, Commission chair, if a garden club “could get a better deal,” West said that the county’s tax-exempt status “gives us a better deal.”

Commissioners also asked for more information on an expanded technical assistance program through Foley Equipment, with an annual fee of $1,499 compared to the current $500 yearly one. West noted the expanded program’s ability to conduct real-time equipment diagnosis from multiple sites, including the landfill, county shops, and with the asphalt department.

Asked about its potential usage, West said that “we do quite a lot of diagnostics on our equipment.”

Scheduled for next Monday’s 9 a.m. weekly meeting will be a decision to award a 5.5-mile asphalt overlay project on Wall Street Road northwest of Mound City. West said the reading and qualifying of the bids occurs this week, with he and Tod Moeller, asphalt department supervisor, to be back before the Commission next Monday.

Commissioners read project bids that include width of 24 feet and depth of 1.5 inches of $660.246.12 from Killough Construction, Ottawa, and $766,464 from Bettis Asphalt, Topeka. Product bids for oil prime coat for the chip and seal surface are $3.49 per gallon of primer and $2.54 per gallon of asphalt emulsion from Vance Brothers, Kansas City, Mo., and $3.89 per gallon of primer and $2.54 per gallon of asphalt emulsion from Coastal Energy Corporation, Willow Springs, Mo.

During the next week, commissioners will also contemplate filling positions on the county’s health advisory board. Amanda Snyder, health department director, reported three open positions--expired terms in District 1 and at large, and an open District 1 position due to resignation because of a move away from the county.

Upon Snyder’s recommendation, the Commission approved Tisha Coleman, regional health nurse for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, for the at large position. Snyder and Jason Hightower, District 1 commissioner, will confer in an attempt to fill the two other positions prior to next Monday night’s health advisory board meeting.

Addressing the health department’s recent reorganization, Snyder reported on a department meeting for the Woman, Infants and Children nutrition program last week and a regular staff meeting this Friday to formulate department goals.