The new digital finger printing machine has arrived and it will soon be in use by the Barton County Sheriff’s Office. Activation is pending approval from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Barton County Administrator Richard Boeckman said during the County Commission meeting Monday morning.
In March, the commission approved the purchase of the L SCAN 1000PX  from Cross Match Technologies for $15,325. The compact, high-resolution fingerprint and palm print scanner is for booking criminal suspects into police identification systems.
The system includes image capture and real-time image preview for biometric data collection. The cost included the scanner, desktop computer, supplies, training and warranty.
Also included is a discount on currently owned equipment that was traded in for the new system. The existing unit is outdated and would require about $4,000 in upgrades, and still would not be compatible with the KBI requirements. Sheriff Brian Bellendir and Information Technology Director John Debes worked on the project.
The update on the scanner came as part of Boeckman’s bi-weekly departmental update. Other highlights included:

County Engineer Clark Rusco
• Attended a Kansas Department of Transportation preconstruction conference concerning the replacement of a bridge on K-4 just west of Claflin. K-4 will be closed from Claflin to NE 100 Avenue. The project, utilizing L&M Contractor, Monday, and will be completed in six or seven months.
• L&M Contractors will begin the repairs of the bridge on the Dry Walnut (NE 10 Avenue) that was damaged by a vehicle. Work is but expected to take only two to three weeks.
• Met with several developers concerning projects located in the floodplain.
• Received a proposal from Kirkham Michael for the High Risk Rural Road signage grant, which lead to a discussion on the project’s scope. Based on the Kirkham Michael design, Barton County will purchase and install the signage, with Kirkham Michael providing construction services. KDOT requires construction services to be completed by another entity when Barton County does the Force Account Work. KDOT will pay 100  percent for construction and construction engineering services.
• Reviewed plans submitted for the Ellinwood Bridge over the Arkansas River. The consultant will incorporate the comments and the project will be ready to bid in several weeks.
• Submitted a proposal to KDOT for construction engineering services for the truss bridge on ?????. It is anticipated that KDOT will review the proposal and issue an agreement for the Commission’s approval. The bridge will be in the May KDOT letting.
• Completed traffic counts at the intersection of K-156 and NE 100 Avenue. The traffic counts will be used for the TEAP traffic study requested by commissioners.
• Inspected asphalt patching on Tenth Street extended for the Cheyenne Bottoms pipe project. The contractor for this project is Wildcat Construction from Wichita.

Road and Bridge Director Dale Phillips
• Readying the South Washington sand pit for summer operations continues. Work includes screening sand, stacking aggregates for asphalt manufacture and utilizing the asphalt plant to mix 450 tons of asphalt for pothole patching.
• Culvert repairs were completed on six new drive entrances; two other culverts were repaired.
• Fabrication of the culvert storage racks at the South Washington pit area was completed.
• Installed a half tank culvert on Northeast 200 Road, north of Susank.
 • Sign replacement continued, in addition to repairing bridge and other road signs.
• Repairs were made to road shoulders southeast of Great Bend.
• Winter weather work included treating ice and snow for two days during the period.
  
County Appraiser Barb Konrade
• Valuation notices were mailed to the taxpayers on March 25. Taxpayers have 30 days to appeal their valuation from the date the notice was mailed. This means that the last day to appeal was Thursday, April 25.
• March 15 was the deadline for personal property renditions to be returned in order to avoid penalties. For the next 30 days, any rendition filed will have a 10  percent penalty added to the assessed value as mandated by state statute. Penalties are 15  percent from May 16-June 15, 20  percent from June 16-July 15, 25  percent from July 16 through March of the following year. Failure to file is 50  percent.
• April 1 was the deadline for Oil and Gas renditions to be returned to avoid penalties. Both Personal Property and Oil and Gas valuation notices will be out no later than May 1st unless an extension is granted. Taxpayers will have until May 15th to appeal their Personal Property and Oil/Gas valuations.
If any taxpayer has a question regarding valuation or Personal Property, please contact the Appraiser’s Office at (620) 793-1821.

Information Technology Director John Debes
• During this period, there were 10,947 spam messages, 30 viruses, two intrusions and two spyware attempts stopped.
• Revised replacement phone equipment for the Courthouse with the Commission. More information was requested and, having received it, will be reviewed with the Commission on April 29.
• Continue assisting the Sheriff’s Office with network updates.
• Converted the county’s conference room to a training center for CIC. This required updating the software on computers and assuring that each had Access loaded, which is the foundation of CIC’s programs. This also included connecting the scanners which will be needed for the Accounts Payable portion of the programming.
• The computer-aided drafting system is being updated. Both Communications and the Mapping Division use the system.

Health Director Lily Akings
Clinic contacts, total – 367
• Immunizations – 79
• Family Planning – 74
• Adult Health (Farm Show) – 138
• Healthy Start visits – 11
• Sexually Transmitted Infections – 20
• Tuberculosis – 22
• Maternal and Infant – 9
• Child Care Licensing Inspections – 8
• Communicable Disease – 1
• Kan Be Healthy – 2
 Providing vaccines to prevent communicable disease is one of the 10 greatest public Health achievements, Akings said. The increasing numbers of measles and pertussis shows how important it is to continue to keep immunization rates high.