A number of county road and bridge issues came to the attention of the Barton County Commission Monday morning as County Administrator Richard Boeckman gave his bi-weekly update on the activities of county departments.

County Engineer Clark Rusco
• The engineering technician met with the bridge contractor for the repair of bridge rail damage north of Susank and NW 30 Avenue.
• Met with South Homestead Township officials concerning work on Barton Lake Road. The township has requested proposals for the work from several contractors.
• The Engineering Technician met with Road and Bridge personnel concerning road damages on the Dundee-Heizer Road.
• Met with a consultant to discuss a proposal for a restudy of the area affected by the Cheyenne Bottoms Inlet pipe project.
• Met with a consultant concerning the Tenth Street Bridge over the Flood Protection Project.
• Met with a consultant concerning the Kansas Department of Transportation High Risk Rural Roads signage grant.
 • Met with a KDOT bridge inspector. KDOT audits 10 percent of the bridges in Barton County every other year and the agency will use the county’s GPS camera for pictures of bridges they include in their report.
• The engineering technician met with Road and Bridge personnel to evaluate the removal of bridge rail at a site north of Susank.
• Preparing Grant applications for the HRRR program. Grant applications are due in July.
• The Engineering technician estimated metal guardrail damages for guardrail south of Ellinwood. Accident reports were not filed for this location.
• Invitations for bids were mailed May 31 for the Ellinwood Bridge over the Ark River. Three contractors have requested bid packages already. Bids will be opened at 2 p.m. June 21 in the County Clerk’s Office.

Road and Bridge Director Dale Phillips
Road and Bridge
• Work crews are busy with road repairs and maintenance in north central Barton County repairing asphalt roads in preparation for sealing operations.
• Culvert work continues daily, along with bridge clean-outs per maintenance schedules.
• Mowing of right of way in northwest Barton County continues and next week will move to the Susank Road area, north of Hoisington.
• Maintenance shop personnel are performing service and labor on equipment as needed. There is an engine replacement taking place.
• Six signs were repaired due to vandalism and regular sign maintenance was performed also.

Noxious Weed
• Staff continues to spray for Musk Thistle as fast as staff can get scheduled.
 
 Memorial Parks
• Staff worked at the Memorial Parks marking graves and cleaning up after the Memorial Day Holiday.

911 Director Doug Hubbard
May 2013 statistics
• 911 landlines – 375
• 911 wireless – 1,107
• Administrative lines – 2,339
• Total calls – 13,821
• Calls for service – 3,632
 911 staff members assisted with the Barton Community College field operations training day by dispatching calls for the exercise from a remote vehicle on the college campus. That training included fire, EMS, law enforcement and nursing students.
 Each month, Hubbard travels to tower sites owned by Barton County to check generators, tower lights and grounds. Radio and repeater checks are done during these inspections also.

Information Technology Director John Debes
• Monitoring the TTC. , Exchange servers and sonic wall firewall continues. Since April 25, there were 12,918 spam messages, 3,548 viruses, 150 intrusions and six spyware attempts stopped.
• On May 6, the purchase of a new phone system for the courthouse was approved. Phone are scheduled to be installed the week of June 24.
• Continue with Sheriff’s network updates, which includes replacing older equipment. With authorization from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Livescan (finger-printing) machine is scheduled for installation.
 
Health Department Director Lily Akings
 Clinic contacts – 140
• Family planning – 29
• Immunizations – 62
• Sexually transmitted – 14
• Tuberculosis – 12
• Healthy start home visits – 8
• Kan Be Healthy exams – 4
• Child Care licensing inspections – 6
• Adult health – 3
• Maternal and infant – 1