Meeting at a glance
Here is what the Barton County Commissioners did at their Tuesday morning agenda meeting.
• Approved the Maintenance, Support and Software Update agreement with Motorola Solutions in the amount of $65,280 for two 800 megahertz radio repeater towers located within the county. The agreement was originally signed in September 2020.
911 Director Dena Popp told the commissioners, “This tower was put in in late 2020 using SPARK funding. The first year of maintenance was included in that contract. As most of you know, that contract could not include future years of maintenance via stipulations of SPARK funding. Since that time, the maintenance contract renewal has been something we talk about every year. Today I’m here to seek approval to renew for year five. The maintenance contract is very important to the 911 center and emergency service personnel, but for us in general, it assists me by notification of alarms, high heat intrusion, power outage, as well as regular updates to the system.”
Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson made the motion to approve the agreement and it was seconded by Commissioner Barb Esfeld. The motion passed 4-0.
• Heard from County Engineer Barry McManaman on the No Passing project in southwest Barton County. Kirkham Michael provided the engineering data and the plans for the project and it was put out to bid by KDOT. Four bids were received and the low bidder was Sign-Up LTD in the amount of $69,542. Upon approval, Sign-Up will install No Passing pennants at the beginning of each no passing zone on county blacktop roads in the southwest portion of the county.
Split into three phases — design, construction and inspection — the original cost was estimated at $171,000.
“We’re at $160,931.79 total cost,” McManaman said. “So we’re about $11,000 under the max. That’s good news, because it means the projects are going to be 100% paid for by KDOT unless we have some unforeseen non-participating costs. I don’t see us exceeding that limit.”
Esfeld made the motion to award the bid and it was seconded by Hutchinson. The motion carried 4-0.
This project will be completed by late summer.
• Approved a bid from American Plains Coop for the purchase of 50,040 gallons of diesel fuel to be used by Road and Bridge for its equipment. American Plains was the low bidder, with a bid of $2.69 for highway-grade diesel and $2.48 per gallon for off-road diesel.
County Works Director Chris Schartz explained the bid process to the Commissioners.
“We have to be specific for who quotes us,” he said. “We fill our trucks and our equipment up every evening so we have to have people that have pumps in town, numerous amount of pumps. We also need somebody that can deliver fuel to our sand dredge in Ellinwood. They have to have the truck, the hose and stuff to be able to reach our sand dredge.”
Because diesel fuel is a commodity, the prices can fluctuate slightly up or down throughout the day, depending upon the market.
“I know they quoted a price, but when we call them and ask them to authorize this, the price could go up a couple cents or it could go down a couple cents,” Schartz said. “It just kind of depends what the market’s doing at the live quote when we tell them to do that. Currently we’re paying pump price, and this would considerably save us some money on fuel.”
Commissioner Donna Zimmerman motioned to accept the American Plains Coop bid and it was seconded by Hutchinson. The motion carried 4-0.
STORY AND PHOTO
BY KEITH LIPPOLDT
klippoldt@gbtribune.com
Phase III of the Facade Improvement Grant Program is underway with 10-39 Cafe of Ellinwood receiving approval of its $20,000 FIG application Tuesday at the Barton County Commissioners agenda meeting at the Courthouse.
Brittney Bailey, co-owner of 10-39 Cafe, located at 104 West 1st St. in Ellinwood, addressed the commissioners about the project, which they hope to have completed in time for Ellinwood’s After Harvest Festival later this month. Although the design will provide additional seating outdoors for the restaurant, Bailey said they are going to share the space with the public that can be used when the restaurant is closed.
Commissioner Donna Zimmerman asked Bailey to describe the project and Bailey replied, “It’s kind of like a park shelter,” she said. “That’s the easiest way to (describe) it. It will provide extra seating at the corner of First and Main in Ellinwood. That’s kind of our downtown hub right there. What it will do is provide overflow seating for the cafe, but our bigger hope is that it will be used more for community events. We’d like to start something called ‘Market Mondays,’ which would allow people to come in and set up like a farmers market right there at the corner of First and Main. People could bring vegetables or sourdough bread or things like that and sell it to the community.”
Bailey also said that there would be no charge for using it for that purpose. “The Market Mondays would be a free event. We hope to use it during the After Harvest Festival. And people would be able to use it for parties and those kind of things.”
Commission Chair Tricia Schlessiger, who represents District 4, which Ellinwood is part of, appreciates 10-39’s willingness to make it a community feature.
“I’m super excited. I like that drawing, and I think it’s going to bring, like you said, a bunch of people together down on Main Street,” she said. “It’ll be a great addition to the community. Super excited about it.”
Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson made the motion to approve the grant award and also commented, “I just wanted to point out that this is our first approval in cooperation with a city. So this is in cooperation with the City of Ellinwood. They’re doing half of it. We’re doing half of it. And together, County and the City/County partnership, we hope to see Ellinwood grow — and your business grow — right there on Main Street.”
Zimmerman offered the second and the motion passed 4-0. Commissioner Duane Reif was absent.
