By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY – On Tuesday, Sept. 3, the Linn County Commissioners learned part of the costs of paving Devlin Road for three miles from 2200 Road to the Miami County line.
Public Works Director Shaun West presented two bids for applying chip and seal to Devlin Road. West said that the companies bid everything they could on the project even though the county had put everything from start to finish on the requests for proposal (RFP).
Because of their local resources, companies bid what they could of the project but the bids did not include road preparation. West said that he will have Todd Moeller, county asphalt foreman, prepare an estimate for the base preparation.
One bid was from Vance Brothers, Kansas City, to prime and double chip seal the three miles for almost $263,600, and that no road preparation is included.
The other company’s bid was to provide single chip and seal with prime coat for more than $147,800 and the optional second seal is more than $106,400 for a total of nearly $254,300. The exclusions on the last bid include grading, ditching, culvert replacements, erosion controls, stripping, bond and sales tax.
Commission Chair Danny McCullough asked if this project fell anywhere in Moeller’s long-term road plan.
West answered that he did not believe it was on the county’s chip and seal road plan.
The commissioners decided to look into this project when rural Parker resident Renee Slinkard brought a petition of 54 signatures to the commissioners at the July 29 commission meeting. Five of the signatures were from people that lived on Devlin Road.
Slinkard presented the paving of the road as a life or death situation for people being transported by ambulance to a hospital. She said that people in that area had been asking for access to a major highway to avoid crossing two or three railroad tracks. She said that riding in an ambulance on gravel roads and over railroad tracks is very uncomfortable.
Ambulances occasionally use Earnest Road north of Parker, which turns into Bethel Church Road in Miami County. That road is not paved but directly connects to U.S. Highway 169 southwest of Osawatomie without going over railroad tracks.
Miami County has not committed to paving the approximately one or more miles of road from the county line to where the present pavement ends on Indianapolis Road.
West will bring the preparation costs of the road to the commissioners next week.
In other business, the commissioners:
• Approved purchasing culverts for 900 Road from Contech Engineered Solutions for about $30,600. Other bidders were Metal Culverts, more than $41,700; Welborn Sales, for more than $34,300; and Complete Sales, for more than $31,900.
• Discussed road gravel testing with representatives from Hamm Quarries.
• Learned about several mechanical problems with shop equipment.
• Approved a contract with On the Go Johns to buy two used portable toilets, one of which is a handicapped toilet, for the Linn County Park at the cost of $2,200. The first year costs will be almost $4,200 with the purchase and maintenance of the toilets. Costs per year after that for maintenance will be $1,995 per year.
• Approved cancelling the portable toilet contract with Gerken Rental for toilets at the Linn County Park. The Gerken charge is about $4,300 per year.
• Learned that repairs and replacement of the front and back outdoor stairs to the main courthouse have been completed.
• Discussed having J.R. Kerr repair railings on the south steps of the courthouse and put new railings on the north steps.
• Approved at West’s recommendation moving Brandon Denman from part-time mower to full time Operator I at $16.31 per hour. West said that he would also need commercial driver’s license (CDL) training and qualification.
• Hired Rebecca Noll as a Field Appraiser I at $17.46 per hour.
• Discussed the replacement of the Parker compactor.
• Discussed the process of hiring the Public Works Operation Director.
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