ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Seward County commissioners made light work out of a few action items at the board’s most recent meeting Oct. 7.
After local 4-H youth, along with Commission Chairman Scott Carr, read a proclamation proclaiming Oct. 6 through 12 at National 4-H Week in Seward County, the commission unanimously approved Cimarron Basin Community Corrections Fiscal Year 2024 Year-End Outcome Report presented by Director Kayla Janko.
The commission next heard from County Clerk Stacia Long in regards to destroying records from recent elections as required by Kansas statute.
“I am going to be destroying ballots and records for the 2022 general election and the 2023 city/school elections,” she said.
Long’s motion did include designating the chairman of the county’s Republican and Democrat committees to be present for the destruction.
“The chairs change, and for some reason, if one of them can’t be there, they can appoint someone to be present when destroying the ballots,” she said.
The commission unanimously approved the designation of the party chairs to be present when records were destroyed.
Next, Contract Consultant Neal Coffey came before the commission to get a change order approved for the bleacher project at the rodeo arena at the fairgrounds.
“On Aug. 19, you entered into a contract with GBS Enterprises for construction and installation of new bleachers, sidewalks and handicap parking at the Seward County Fairgrounds rodeo arena,” he said. “Upon further review, Seward County Code Compliance has determined the need for additional ADA sidewalks to allow for handicap access to the restrooms and concession stands. These additional sidewalks will connect with the newly installed bleacher sidewalks to aforementioned facilities.”
The original contract value for the project was $309,556, and the change order is $21,230.15, bringing the amended contract value to $411,785.15.
“My recommendation to you is to approve the change order and direct administration to execute that change order with funds to be provided from the ARPA funds,” Coffey said. “The wheelchairs would not be able to access the restrooms without these.”
The commission unanimously approved the change order and directed county administration to execute it. Coffey said for now, there is nothing else on the horizon for the bleacher project.
“It’s all going pretty well,” he said. “The dirt work is pretty much complete on the pad area and the parking lot area. The footers are dug, and we started installing steel. It’s looking like we’re good to go.”
Administrator April Warden was next at the podium to talk about a resolution providing for the issuance of government obligation bonds to pay for the costs of building and repairing county roads and the publication of the resolution as required by state statute.
“During strategic planning, budget preparation, budget work sessions and the public hearing, it was determined the most cost-effective means to build and repair roads and remain revenue neutral was to get a bond issue to pay the cost of the needed overlay project,” she said. “The bond project would be for $6 million.”
The following road projects in accordance with plans and specifications are:
• Road R – U.S. Highway 54 to U.S. Highway 160
• Meade Lake Road – U.S.-54 to the Meade County line
• V Road – Meade Lake Road to U.S.-54
• Road 16 – T Road to Kismet Main Street
• Kismet Main Street - US-54 to Road 16
• Road J – Road I to Kansas Highway 190
• Larrabee Road – Oklahoma stateline to U.S.-160
Warden advised the commission the resolution would need to be published for three consecutive weeks.
“There is a 60-day period that is open for the public to protest. In order for them to protest the bond issue, they would have to get 5 percent of the voters in Seward County,” she said. “In December, your clerk would then sign the certificate of no protest by Dec. 24 should there be no protest.”
Warden emphasized Resolution 2024-13 simply stated the county’s desire to get a GO bond to build and repair roads. She added the bond would cover 2025 build and repair projects and would be spread out over time, leaving $4 million in place in the county’s budget for other projects.
“You’re going to have your Road O, your Road P project,” she said. “You also indicated you wanted some chip seal projects done as well as pothole repair.”
Commissioner Steve Helm said he had not seen a plan for pothole repair, chip seal projects or culvert cleanup. Warden said this is part of a plan commissioners wanted to put in place continuing to work on 10 miles of road a year.
“That is something they are currently working on,” she said. “They have started. They have not started pothole repair yet. They have identified some areas where they could do some chip and seal, and they have started culvert cleanup.”
Commissioner C.J. Wettstein said he felt it was time to look at moving forward with the bond issue to help the project get started.
“The thing I’m concerned about is we went long enough, and if we go into the $4 million we have sitting there, that would limit us on doing maintenance to the existing highways we have,” he said. “I think we’re going to have to utilize this, go ahead and do the bond issue, get it started, and I think we’re going to be looking at possibly taking the issue to the legislators to put on a half-cent sales tax and take to that vote of the people to see if we can do that and continue doing road projects.”
Warden said no terms have been issued for the bonds, as the resolution simply allows the county to enter into a bond project. The commission voted unanimously to approve Resolution 2024-13.
Lastly, Warden talked about bids for the county’s 2025 asphalt overlay projects.
“Kirkham Michael & Associates gave notice Seward County was soliciting bids for the county’s 2025 asphalt overlay projects,” she said. “That information was published. The bids were received. You looked at those at your last meeting, but you did table it due to the fact we wanted to have conversations with Kismet to see where they were at in their budget to be able to cost share with the Kismet Main Street project.”
Warden said Kismet staff are not ready for an asphalt project at this time.
“They are needing to replace a water line that runs through Main Street in Kismet, and they do not have the funds to do that project right now,” she said. “They are waiting to find out if they receive a grant for that project. Therefore, they did not want to have a new street and dig into that to replace the water line.”
Warden said the Kismet Main Street project was only an add-on alternate bid.
“The reason for that was if we needed to remove that portion out of the bid, you could approve the base bid,” she said.
Warden advised commissioners to make their motion to approve the bid pending the 60-day protest period for the GO bond issue. Commission Vice Chair Tammy Sutherland-Abbott made just such a motion.
“I move we accept the bid from J & R Sand for the base bid amount of $5,876,041 contingent upon the protest portion with petitions being filed,” she said.
The commission voted unanimously to approve the bid from J & R Sand pending the bond protest period.
