Barton County Departments submit a bi-weekly activity report of statistical information or a summary of services. County Administrator Richard Boeckman presented highlights from the most recent reports to the County Commission Monday morning.
Below is a recap of the activities.
County Engineer Clark Rusco
 The Ellinwood bridge over the Arkansas River isn’t functioning as it should, he reported. The bridge is 30 years old and has developed some uneven spots. These deflections are occurring at the south expansion joint on the west side. The expansion joint should be level across both sides and now the south side is about half an inch higher.
Steel construction shims were installed during the original bridge construction to level the metal expansion joint. The shims have moved and on Tuesday, L&M Construction cut the shims to allow the bridge to expand. The shims were cut, but the deflection remains.
The designer of the recently installed pin-and-hanger replacement assemblies was notified about what else should be done. A response has not been received to date.
The problem started Friday, June 29, when heat caused the bridge to not expand properly causing a traffic hazard, reported Road and Bridge Director Dale Phillips. The bridge was reduced to one lane of traffic until repairs could be made, but is back up to two lanes.
Road and Bridge Director Dale Phillips
 • 1,200 tons of asphalt were hauled out of stockpiles for use on Susank Road and on asphalt roads east of Beaver. Eight miles of road have been overlaid in the past two weeks.
• 1,500 tons of quarter inch chips were hauled to stockpiles northwest of Hoisington and north of Odin in preparation for summer sand seal projects.
• 1,400 tons of sand were pumped from the South Washington sand pit.
• Bridge crews installed four large culverts, cleaned two dry waterways and reseeded grass for erosion control.
• Crews replaced two 36-inch crossroad culverts eight miles north of Odin as the old culverts had separated causing failure. This also required the department to repair the asphalt road.
• Repaired 25 signs, included 10 damaged by vandalism.
• Phillips reported that the dry weather has not slowed weed growth as much as one would anticipate. So, spraying continues.

911 Director Doug Hubbard
• Reported there were a total of 7,149 calls to the 911 Center. Of those, 5,593 were came on the administrative lines and the rest to 911. Of the 911 calls, 1,178 came from cell phones and 378 from land lines.
 
Information Technology Director John Debes
• Monitoring the TTC, exchange servers and sonic wall firewall continues. During this period, the systems stopped 4,986 spam messages, 41 viruses, 3 intrusions and 42 spyware attempts.
• Continue to refine the Treasurer’s Office’s use of the state’s MOVRS system. This is the new computer system in use by the Kansas Department of Revenue to handle vehicle license and tag renewals. Problems are not easily solved as the software is not consistent in its returns.
• Continues the coordination of the installation of a plug in for the equipment being used for the video appearance system for Juvenile Services. The television used for the system will be wall mounted and cables will be strung. Work is beginning in contacting the various locations where meetings will be held on the other end to assure software will work there.
 
Health Department Director Lily Akings
• Clinic numbers, total of 235 contacts
• Confirmed one case of pertussis, or whooping cough