Township officials from throughout Barton County gathered Wednesday morning at the Columbus Club in Great Bend to hear updates from county officials at the annual Township Meeting.

Barton County Engineer Barry McManaman, who emceed the morning’s meeting, said the yearly meeting is important for the officials as they conduct daily business in each of the county’s 22 civil townships. Most, but not all, townships were represented at Wednesday’s meeting.

“It helps (township officials) to know what we do, then when they have questions that come up, they give us a call and they can see if there’s things that we can help them with, and provide them with resources and information,” McManaman said. “The more people know how the process works the better off we are (as a county).”

In addition to several department heads and multiple county employees, commissioners from all five districts as well as incoming commissioner Jon Prescott were in attendance following their own weekly meeting.

Road and bridge projects

Officials took most of the first half of the meeting to provide updates on the progress of several significant road and bridge projects.

• Work to widen the intersection of K-4 and NE 60 Avenue at Redwing to accommodate semi traffic wrapped up last fall, McManaman told the audience. “It’s been a big improvement. The people that live up in that area that drive trucks through there recognize how much it has helped (from a safety standpoint.”

Before the widening, semis were having to pull into oncoming lanes of traffic to turn the corner onto and off of K-4.

• Work is continuing on safety improvements at North Washington Avenue and NE/NW 30 Road intersection following a two-car fatal crash at the intersection in April 2018.

One improvement is a radar warning system that will lower mast arms across 30 Road to warn east and westbound traffic when oncoming traffic is detected traveling north or south on Washington Avenue. McManaman said other places in the country have had success with similar warning devices.

Signage improvements will eventually include LED flashers on stop signs as well as radar speed displays similar to what is currently used on Main Street north of 24th. Pavement markings will also be improved, along with widening rumble strips and trimming trees on the southeast corner of the intersection to improve sight lines at the intersection.

• On NW 50 Road about a mile west of U.S. 281, work is underway to put a box extension over a drainage ditch that runs under the road. The road will be extended to 16 feet width over the ditch on each side to address safety concerns on that road. The only work left is to add wing walls at the site. The county received assistance funding the project through a KDOT high-risk roads grant.

• The county also recently took bids to repair an faulty expansion joint that had come loose on the Arkansas River bridge on NE 60 Avenue, commonly known as Dartmouth Road. The project, just shy of $40,000, was recently awarded to L&M Contractors in Great Bend. 

The company said it expects to begin the one to two week project in July, though work could possibly begin sooner, McManaman said. The road will be closed during the duration of the project. County road crews have already undertaken temporary repairs to the bridge so the issue does not present a traffic hazard until permanent repairs can be completed.

• On NE 220 Road in Cleveland Township in northeast Barton County, crews have undertaken repairs to fill multiple holes in the road caused by separation in old drainage pipes under the road. 

With these safety issues, McManaman cautioned township officials to always let county officials know if they have safety issues on roads in their township such as visibility issues or missing object markers and signage. These cause significant safety concerns, he said.

“They serve a very important function, to let people know that there’s a problem, there’s a drop off,” he said.

• Another project long in the works is the potential replacement of the Walnut Creek bridge on East Barton County Road, about a half-mile east of U.S. 56. The decades-old bridge has long caused issues with farm equipment trying to route through the area. While equipment has routed onto U.S. 56 in the past to accommodate, he noted, with work ahead widening U.S. 56 between the Great Bend city limits and the K-156 junction, farm equipment will not be able to use that route during construction, so the bridge project has become even greater priority.

The biggest issue with completing the project is that the bridge has never been in bad enough condition to qualify for KDOT pass through funding on various programs. Right now, the county is waiting to see if the bridge will qualify for funding under one of several CARES Act federal stimulus programs. It is uncertain whether or not federal guidelines will be expanded enough for the project to qualify for federal funding. 

• County Works Director Darren Williams said Road and Bridge employees overlaid 38 miles of paved road and 102 miles of dirt roads in the southwest portion of Barton County in 2021. Total cost for the improvements was around $2.1 million. In 2022, he said crews will be overlaying 130-140 miles of roads in the southeast part of the county, east of U.S. 281 and north of Ellinwood.

• Road and Bridge crews replaced over 300 damaged signs on county roads as a result of the December 15, 2021 windstorm.

Disaster declaration

Barton County Emergency Management Director Amy Miller updated officials on the application process for the FEMA disaster declaration in connection with the Dec. 15, 2021 windstorm. 

An applicant briefing will be held Tuesday, March 1 at 10 a.m. in the Barton County Courthouse Conference Room.  Applications are due no later than Tuesday, March 15 for any claims related to the windstorm. 

Miller updated officials on guidelines that must met to qualify for federal disaster declarations - $4,788,744.40 in documented damages at the state level, $104,521.30 at the county level, and an individual project worksheet minimum of $3,500.

To apply for assistance under the federal disaster declaration, applicants need a federal tax ID number, as well as a primary and secondary contact information including two separate phone numbers and email addresses. All damage must be documented, including dates, before and after photographs, and hours spent cleaning debris or repairing damage, and receipts for any materials that were purchased. 

The application must be filled out online. Miller said her office is available for assistance or specific questions with regard to filling out the application.

Those wishing to apply, but not able to attend the meeting need to let Miller’s office know in order to get on the applicant list. A conference call number can also be obtained from Miller’s office, 620-793-1919, for those unable to attend in person.

The FEMA number assigned to this declaration is DR-4640-KS.