Monday, January 7, 2013

County Commission Meeting -- Problems with Courthouse Roof Detailed

Problems with the Courthouse roof were detailed as Presiding Commissioner Ted Findley and Clerk Roberta Owens briefed the new commissioners on the roof situation. The County Commission says that Industrial Roofing, who won the bid to do the job, never completed the project. The county withheld the final payments to Industrial Roofing citing work they say is not completed. Both the county and S&V, the consultants employed by the county, subsequently had other roofers inspect and catalog deficiencies. Among specific problems found were broken roof shingles, the whole roof surface screwed up, rotten sheeting, and nails poking through. It turned out that this was the first time Industrial Roofing had ever done a slate roofing project.

The county borrowed money from the Missouri DNR for the project and they were supposed to start paying when the roof project was complete. The money was loaned under the DNR's Missouri Heritage Properties Grant Program. But since the roof project is not complete, the county has not had to start paying off the loan. There is no interest yet on the loan. Clerk Roberta Owens said that S&V took a long time to produce paperwork because of major medical issues involving the owner.

Emergency Management Director Pat Kobbe reported on a recent disease and agro-terrorism meeting for the region that she attended. Plans for future inclement weather situations were discussed. Currently, the priority is for KCP&L and United Electric to go to major population centers before doing rural areas. It took crews eight hours to restore power to the Sheridan Rural Housing following the recent blizzard even though it is a critical facility.

Economic Developer Tammy Ueligger reported that there will be an upcoming business help forum Wednesday the 16th for Allendale for area businesses. Ueligger and commissioners made plans for attending the upcoming Great Northwest Days in Jefferson City February 5th and 6th. It is an opportunity for represenatatives from the area, including all the counties, to meet with legislators from around the state. Each county will have its own booth set up with prizes and promos for their county.

Road and Bridge Foreman Jim Fletchall discussed repair needs for equipment, including a repainting job for one of the vehicles. Two tires were needed on one of the semis.

The county discussed the groundwork for fuel, rock, and other bids for the year. The goal is to try and get everything done by February. Fletchall had a list of new roads that he says need brush work on them. Presiding Commissioner Ted Findley said that the present policy was to act on complaints; new Commissioner Reggie Nonneman said that it would be a good idea to send everyone a brush letter on a particular road if they were going to send one. Nonneman said that he had heard complaints that the county had sent brush letters to one person, but not the rest of the people or landowners on the road. People who do get a brush letter cannot hire out the County Crews to remove the brush in question.

Lance Murray of the Missouri Department of Transportation reported that he and Gary Hart were about to inspect all of the county bridges. They will take pictures of all the bridges; the previous ones were taken in the 1960's and are faded or out of date. They will ensure all load postings are accurate and report back to the county on the condition of the bridges. They informed commissioners about a new Bridge Engineering Assistance Project that will have money in June if they need engineering work done for bridges.

Fletchall reported on complaints about inadequate rock or no rock delivered to roads. The county has many of the roads which they deliver gravel to documented. The county documents how much rock is delivered to these roads. Many times, however, gravel delivery runs from May to August due to inclement weather so that one road might be done and a neighboring road might not be.

Other complaints were about the quality of rock. At one point, the county switched rock quarries from Ravenwood to Bethany due to quality issues. Fletchall said that the quality from the Ravenwood quarry had improved recently.

The county did the second reading of the petition to close a portion of Old 169 north of Grant City from the Maschioff pasture to 169. The county will close that portion of Old 169 and build a new county road from the hog farm straight to 169. Commissioners say that this will result in less road to take care of.

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