If road repair efforts are to continue in earnest this spring and summer, Allen County commissioners will soon have to decide what to do with a 31-year-old chip spreader.
Its front axle broke last July, and parts for the machine are unavailable, road and bridge director Mark Griffith told commissioners Tuesday morning. The machine has no trade-in value, and while a new axle could be fabricated, Griffith worries about throwing money at equipment that’s living on borrowed time.
Anderson County was gracious enough to lend county crews here their chip spreader last year, but Griffith would prefer to avoid that situation again.
Griffith presented commissioners with a quote from the Van Keppel Company of Springfield, Mo., for a 2024 model, which came in at $419,750. While the new model is up to 30% more efficient and easy to operate, “I didn’t want you to have sticker shock,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be today,” of a decision, though it needs to be made soon.
Funds would come from the county’s special machinery fund, which had a cash balance of $2.8 million at the end of last year.
COMMISSIONER Jerry Daniels was in favor of moving quickly. “I don’t want anything stalling our chip and seal operation this year. You know how crucial that is, and we have a lot of catching up to do,” he told Griffith. “Call around, get some hard numbers and time frames, and we’ll make a decision in the next week or two. I just don’t want any excuses as far as equipment goes.”
It may be hard to imagine now, but once warm weather arrives, county crews will have a busy year. Griffith told the Register his department is prioritizing work on West Virginia Road east of Mildred, 2000th Street around the Allen County Country Club, and roads near the site of the old St. John’s hospital in Gas, south of U.S. 54.
Griffith said county crews intend to reshape the road base and apply two layers of chip and seal in those three areas.
The chip spreader is the last piece of the puzzle. Allen County’s distributor truck, which applies the liquid asphalt, is getting upgraded and scheduled to be operating by springtime. The county’s five dump trucks are in good condition, and “we have a good pile of rock” thanks to a cantankerous rock crusher that, while functional, has given county employees plenty of gray hair.
Commissioner Bruce Symes requested Griffith look at additional options. “In addition to the dealer, you can check your websites,” he said. “I don’t want to be cheap in our decision, I just want to look around.” Griffith agreed to compile several options for new and used equipment that commissioners can consider at next week’s meeting.
More road news: spring should also bring the completion of repairs to county roads damaged by additional traffic during the closure of U.S. 169 in 2018 and 2019. Bettis Asphalt will finish the work, which the state has agreed to pay for. 
COUNTY Counselor Bob Johnson informed commissioners 265 letters will soon be sent out notifying those who are more than three years delinquent on property taxes.
The amount of delinquent property taxes in the county now stands at $865,000. Last year’s tax sale collected around $800,000 in settled accounts. Johnson anticipates giving those who are delinquent until March 1 to pay, noting that in March he plans on filing a petition for a tax sale likely to occur next fall. That would fall in line with the commission’s goal of holding a tax sale every two years.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Commissioner Symes informed the commission of recent efforts to reinstate funding for the Local Ad Valorem Tax Reduction (LAVTR). He expressed disappointment with both of Allen County’s elected officials in Topeka, Sen. Caryn Tyson and Rep. Fred Gardner, for failing to support an initiative to reinstate the program, which could result in lower property taxes by channeling surplus state sales tax revenue to Kansas counties.
