County continues to work on road improvements

Roads, bridges and how to pay for them was the largest slice of the time pie for the Bourbon County Commissioners on Monday.

Jim Harris, Public Works director, heard of areas of concerns from the public and the commission. Harris told the commission that the overlay on Jayhawk Road will start this week, that work crews should be done in two days at Bourbon County Lake and they are mowing at the Blake Quarry as part of the reclamation project there.

Daryl and Jeannie Parker attended the meeting to tell the commission of the need for attention by the county work crews to Native Road between 215th and 205th Roads.

In April the Parkers had contacted the county and were told by Marty Pearson that in August the repair work would start, they said.

"The squeaky wheel gets the grease," said Daryl Parker.

Allen Warren, commission chairman, told them that the June and August rains have "taken up a month and a half of our summer.

"We can not guarantee that it will get on the list this fall," Warren added, because of the priority of the poorer condition of some of the other roads.

However, Warren thanked them for bringing it to the commission's attention.

Second District Commissioner Barbara Albright said she attended a Lake Fort Scott residents meeting on Saturday and learned the residents are having a clean-up day at the lake on Saturday, Oct. 19. The city or the county usually supplies help for that, she was told at the meeting. Lisa Ward is in charge of the clean-up, Albright said. Warren and Third District Commissioner Harold Coleman said they can't remember the county ever helping in the past. Albright said she would contact Ward for clarification. Albright also said she learned there is one tornado siren the city has set aside for the Fort Scott Lake area.

Warren said "You have to have an electrician put it up, someone to build a hole, buy a pole and the ongoing expense of the electric meeting. The free siren is the cheapest part of it."

Coleman asked Harris to put two road issues on the list of road projects that need to be addressed. The ditch north of Fulton needs to be cleaned out so the water will run back to the Little Osage River and also the road northeast of Hammond, near the Beth Quarry.

Frank Young, engineer with Agricultural Engineering Associates, Uniontown, attended Monday's commission meeting to open bids for the low-water bridge on 260th Road. There were two bids for the project. Rogers and Sons, Fort Scott, beat out J&J Contractors, Iola, with the bid of $98,425. J&J Contractors' bid was $115,000. The commissioners voted to go with the lowest bid by Rogers.

While there, Young made a recommendation to the commission for 210th Road south of Deere Road.

"I recommend a 36-inch round or two 24-inch round pipes or a squashed pipe with the same area," Young said. "The key is getting the fill over the pipe...you need to get two feet of fill over the pipes. I would put the pipe at an angle, building the ditch first."

The commission heard from Sondra Clark, program manager with the Kansas Department of Transportation about the Federal Fund Exchange Program that the county has been using for additional funding for road and bridge improvement projects.

"These funds can be used for anything transportation related, but no equipment, just actual road and bridge work," Clark said.

Bourbon County has a balance of $842,000 that can be used on road construction, pavement preservation, purchase of aggregate, safety improvements, erosion protection measures, sidewalks, curb and gutter, storm sewer repairs, construction of low-water crossings, and bridge construction, replacement, rehabilitation, repair, painting or removal.

"These funds help you do what you need to do to improve the infrastructure of your county," Clark said.

Emergency Manager

Jackie Miller, Southeast Region Coordinator with the Kansas Adjutant General's Department, came to assist in finding an Emergency Manager. This in response to Terri Coop's resignation from the Bourbon County Emergency Manager position in August.

Warren said they need help advertising for the position.

"Whatever we are going to run in our paper, (we'd like) to run it by you," Warren said.

"I can assist you at interview time," Miller said. "The most important (attribute) for the position is to be willing to work in their team...that will determine their success. Secondary to that, in disaster federal declarations, you can be reimbursed as much as you can."

"I'd be interested in questions for interviewing," Albright said.

The commissioners took a time out of the regular meeting to attend the Sleep Inn Hotel groundbreaking at the intersection of Hwy. 54 and Hwy. 69.

Tax sale

Following the groundbreaking ceremony, a tax sale meeting took place back at the commission room. Dan Meara, attorney helping with the sale, and Susan Quick, county treasurer, met with the commissioners to update them on the 238 tracts on which a judicial tax foreclosure was started in February. The lengthy process is to collect unpaid real estate taxes.

"We are at the end of the process that began in 2008," Meara told the Tribune.

Of those 238 real estate tracts, "We've disposed of 157, right now there are 81 remaining. Six or seven are in litigation. Eighty-one will be sold in October," Meara said.

People can still get their property back by paying the $250 foreclosure fee and all taxes up through 2012, he said.