By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY– The Linn County Commissioners had to postpone a meeting they had planned for Monday, Feb. 3, about grievances that had been filed against Commissioner Jim Johnson over a year ago that had never been resolved. Register of Deeds Kristy Schmitz was not available to meet on Monday.
They were planning on meeting with County Treasurer Janet Kleweno and Schmitz about the grievance committee that they were on with former commissioner Danny McCullough who was the chair of that committee.
Commissioners Alison Hamilton and Jason Hightower will be meeting with Kleweno and Schmitz since the grievances were against Johnson. The meeting has been rescheduled to Feb. 18 because Hightower will not be available on Feb. 10.
Commissioners also learned from road operations manager Jesse Walton that work would start on the 900 Road bridge the end of February if the weather holds. He explained that the collapsed culvert would be replaced with one the county already had.
Walton, Johnson and Hightower thought it would be better to do it right by going ahead and putting the other culvert that had floated up back into place. Walton said that new band set for the culvert would cost about $360 and that the county would have to rent a compactor plate for the excavator.
In a related issue, Public Works Director Shaun West said that the county would have to look with the engineering company about getting a survey and buying extra right of way for the Baskerville Road project in order to get the tube long enough to slope the ground.
The question he posed to commissioners was whether the county or Kaw Valley wanted to continue to work together after a heated exchange about the failure of the flowable fill attempt at repairing the 900 Road bridge late last year.
“With the discussions that occurred around that time about the 900 Road, do you want me to reach back out to the engineering firm and see if they are still willing to get a survey team?” asked West. “Or would you prefer me to contract that survey team myself?
“I don’t think this is something that we have to deal with immediately or make a decision on, but it’s probably something in the next week or two that I’d come back to you after you looked at it and say, Hey which direction do you want me to go?’“
Hamilton said she would like to see all of this information put in a project folder so she could go over what had gone on in the past. West will come back about this project on Feb. 18.
In other business, the commissioners:
• Made the decision to offer Kent Harris the position of planning and zoning officer at a rate of $23.78 per hour after he passes all pre-employment screenings.
• Appointed Daniel Black to a Commission District 2 position on the county’s planning and zoning commission to replace Daniel Earnest.
• Agreed to have the county construction manager Randy Page look at one of the older cabins at the lake and give the commissioners an estimate on the cost to remodel it. Also, agreed to have Page repair the gazebo at the courthouse..
• Discussed purchasing a snow blade and salt spreader for the noxious weed department’s utility task vehicle (UTV) and adding that to noxious weed director Johnny Taylor’s tasks in the winter.
Last week, it had been reported that having the dump truck plows loaded with salt for the road ways was damaging the parking lot. Several parking blocks were damaged and the kind of salt used damaged the concrete.
The commissioners decided that the cost of the blade and the spreader for the UTV were too high. Johnson did not think that the county’s UTV would hold up to that kind of work.
They decided to put a snowplow blade and spreader either on a pickup truck or skid steer loader during the winter months.
• Decided to talk with an attorney l about the final payment to KwiKom for installing broadband.
• Heard from Public Works Director Shaun West that the requests for proposals (RFP) had gone out and would be in the paper the first and third week of February.
• Approved paying Oakes Ford $9,582 for the repair of the fuel pump for the sign truck.
• Learned from West that new large transportation bus needs a new motor because there is no compression in one cylinder. West said that it was under warranty but it would take a couple of weeks to get it back. He said that assisted passengers would be rerouted on other vehicles.