BY KEITH LIPPOLDT

klippoldt@gbtribune.com

Barton County Engineer Barry McManaman has among his duties, the responsibility of maintaining the structural integrity of the 372 bridges in Barton County. After Tuesday’s County Commission meeting, he can mark four of those off of his to-do list.

McManaman appeared before the Commissioners with photos of four bridges, including the three Native Stone Bridges north of Beaver, that are in need of grout and stone repair. The constant flow of water has weakened the grout lines and some stones have been shifted by objects hitting them. Also, the Reinforced Concrete Bridge (OS 258) three miles north of Ellinwood has been eroding on the downstream side and water could threaten the integrity of this box bridge. This structure crosses Little Cheyenne Creek on NE 100 Ave.

“The problem we’re running into on this one is downstream,” McManaman said of the Box Bridge north of Ellinwood. “The east end of the box has severe erosion, and you can see where, over the years, Road and Bridge has put in concrete riprap. They’ve poured some concrete in there to kind of to seal that up. But on the east end, the downstream end is really starting to wash out. I met on site with Kurt Miller from L&M contractors, and then Chris Schartz from Road and Bridge, and we estimated there may be as much as five feet of erosion on that downstream end. So we brainstormed what would be a good repair. The idea is that Road and Bridge will go in and remove that riprap back several feet to get it back down to bare dirt. Then L&M would come in with a crane and the drive what’s called sheet pile. The fear on this is that if we ever get a large flow and that water ever starts getting under that west end, which is pretty shallow, once you get that water flow going, you could really undermine the box, and we could lose the box. So we need to do something.”

McManaman explained the sheet pile would be placed about 18” from the end of the bridge, creating a void that will be filled with concrete to make a protective wall. This wall will stop the erosion and protect the bridge from further erosion damage.

The cost to repair this bridge will be $44,730 plus the cost of concrete.

During the discussion, Commissioner Donna Zimmerman said, “I think it’s kind of a no-brainer. I can’t imagine what it would cost to completely replace this bridge. So if you can fix it and keep it going into the future for $44,000 plus concrete, it makes a lot of sense.”

Commission Chair Tricia Schlessiger also acknowledged the fact the problem was caught early. 

“I appreciate that you guys caught this one, because it feels like by catching it early, then we’re preventing a larger expenditure later.”

McManaman then addressed the Commissioners on repairs needed on the Native Stone Bridges.

“Over time, the grout joints have really started to deteriorate, especially in the bottom couple rows,” McManaman said. “On the ends of the piers, there’s a little bit of stone that’s come off. That’s the south side of the box. The wings aren’t so bad on the south side of the box. But when you get to the north side, eventually you’ll start seeing that the wings have started to separate. There’s some grout work that needs to be done, and then the stones have actually kind of moved. So we need to reset the stones on those wings. You can see, kind of what we’re proposing is that, and they’re 

Again, I met with L&M and Chris Schartz and L&M would come in and just lightly chip out that deterioration in the grout lines that are bad, and then regrout. We’re just hoping to make the structure solid so we can save the bridge. There really was no good way to for a contractor to bid on this kind of work, because you just don’t really know what you’re going to run into. So what Kurt did is he worked up a cost on a daily basis, and that’s $5,305 for their crew and equipment. They would come in and Chip those grout lines out and put in new grout and do the work to reset the stones on the wings. 

McManaman said the underside of one of the bridges is showing bare bracing metal that has begun to rust. That would need to be cleaned and the rust removed before the concrete was repatched.

The Native Stone Bridges are on the State Historic Register. McManaman believes since this maintenance work, there shouldn’t be any hold up with the state to complete the work.

McManaman asked the Commissioners for a maximum of $65,000 to repair these three bridges.

Commissioner Duane Reif said, “Hopefully we can keep these bridges. Historically, I think are just a good thing to have, If we don’t take care of these little issues, we can have some major issues.

Zimmerman made the motion to accept the bid from L&M Contractors, not to exceed $65,000. Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson made the second. The motion carried 5-0.

In other action, the Commissioners:

• Heard from Information Technology Director Dereck Hollingshead on a proposal to replace computers at the Health Department. The proposal includes 16 Dell laptops, docks and privacy screens.

“In 2024, we went out for bid to replace a large majority of our computers,” Hollingshead said. “As part of that list, the Health Department was not included. They didn’t have funding in their budget to replace computers. So in 2025 they found a grant to replace a large majority of their computers. The IT department, a couple weeks ago, went out for bid on 16 laptops, docs and privacy screens for their department. We’ve got six bids for these items.”

Hutchinson compared the two best bids, at least one coming from a local vendor, but not at the lowest price, and made a case for why he felt the bid should stay local.

“I’ve looked at these thoroughly. And I think you said the only difference between the SHI bid and Central Plains Computer Service bid is that SHI has the Ultra Seven processor and Central Plains Computer Services is using the !- Seven,” he said. “In my opinion, I think that if you were to recommend the SHI bid, I would commend you for bringing us the best possible deal - or one of the lower prices for a local bid would be Central Plains Computer Service. And since they met the minimum qualifications for the RFP, I’m always going to land in favor of reinvesting these dollars back to a local vendor. 

“I know it’s like a small thing. It’s $20-25,000. It doesn’t really move the needle. But we need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. And if we could get all the other taxing entities to do the same thing, when we have a local bid that meets the specifications, and it’s within reason, I think that if everyone did it, it definitely would move the needle.”

After further discussion, Commissioner Barb Esfeld made the motion to accept the bid from Central Plains Computer Services for a total cost of $21,720. Zimmerman seconded and the motion passed 5-0.

• Approved the purchase of an autoclave (sterilizer) and software upgrade costs of $5,397.96 from McKesson. The purchase was just above the $5,000 purchase threshold, thus needing approval from the Commissioners.

Hutchinson motioned to approve the purchase. Zimmerman seconded and the motion carried 5-0.