Allen County commissioners determined three roads deserved immediate repairs at their meeting Tuesday morning. The roads incurred increased traffic during the rebuild of US 169.
Though Bettis Asphalt bid on seven projects last month, county officials still have yet to hear from the Kansas Department of Transportation as to how how much they will pay for repair work.
Commissioners all agreed the top priority was on Old US-169 south of the quarry bridge located south of Humboldt city limits to Connecticut Road. Public works director Mitch Garner agreed to ask Bettis Asphalt for a cost adjustment. The original plan was to do a 2-inch mill and overlay for the entire stretch. That project was slated to cost $334,125.
The second priority will be fixing a 10,280-foot stretch on the Southwind Trail overpass.
Commissioners also want to repair the eastbound lane at K-224/Hawaii Road that connects Old US 169 to US 169.
The worst spot youve got is just south of the water tower on ninth street, commissioner Bill King said.
Garner said Bettis Asphalt cannot get to that spot before Saturdays Biblesta, so county crews will begin working on that area today.
We are going to do what we can. We will dig that out tomorrow and try to lay some asphalt down, Garner said. This is just a temporary fix, but it should hold pretty good.
Commissioner Jerry Daniels said he is disappointed with KDOTs lack of timely response. I am not feeling very optimistic at this time.
COMMISSIONERS AGREED to purchase a portable trash pump from Foley Equipment out of Chanute for $39,678.97.
Garner reported that the rock crusher is still not working.
They are trying to find a specialist to fix it, Garner said. If they cant get it done soon, I am going to see if they can get us a loaner in, because I need some rock. It will start and run, but it kicks off when it starts crushing.
In other news, Garner said the county is almost done with the ground work at the Humboldt ambulance barn.
Alan Weber, who is on the board of the Your Community Foundation, reminded commissioners the foundation has an environmental fund.
There have been a lot of articles in the paper about the recycling program in Allen County and how they are trying to get going, Weber said. We have a fund the commissioners contributed $50,000 to in 2011 and we have not taken any of that money out. It is an endowment fund and you are allowed to take out earnings each year. It has grown from $50,000 to $68,000. You could take out a distribution of $3,400 right now and get another 5 percent next year to give to the recycling project.
