Barton County Engineer Clark Rusco has met with Bartlett Grain Company officials over how traffic to and from the new grain-handling facility will impact U.S. 56, which runs along the north edge of the site, the Barton County Commission learned Monday morning.
This information has been forwarded to the Kansas Department of Transportation. KDOT has an overlay project next summer and they may want to review the pavement striping for the roadway adjacent to the proposed Bartlett plant.
Kansas City, Mo.-based Bartlett Grain Company LP will build a five-silo and office/shop complex between Great Bend and Ellinwood. The area is around 100 acres and is located at 550 E. U.S. 56 in the Great Bend Township. It is framed on the north by U.S. 56, the south by East Barton County Road, the east by SE 60 Avenue (location of the Dartmouth elevator owned by Pawnee Valley Coop) and the west by SE 50 Avenue (the location of Little Giant Fittings).
The company will invest about $20 million in the plant and construction will begin this month. The company expects being open by the 2015 wheat harvest.
The Barton County elevator will join nine other Bartlett grain facilities in Kansas. 
Rusco’s update was part of County Administrator Richard Boeckman’s county update during the Monday morning County Commission meeting. Also noted were:

County Engineer
• Drainage issues at various locations in the County.
• Preparing sign database for Kansas Department of Transportation High Risk Rural Road signage Phase 2 project. Finalized plan requirements with KDOT project manager. Sign placement and quantities will be completed in the next couple of weeks. Have been reviewing existing signs with Road and Bridge Department personnel and have been deleting or adding signs as needed to bring signage up to the current Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices standards. Preparing cost estimates for KDOT for proposed force account construction.
• Truss bridge southeast of Great Bend – The Kansas Department of Health and Environment storm water permit for this structure requires a storm water report be filed anytime the bridge site receives more than half inch of rain. This requirement is being met.
• The Federal Highway Administration will be providing assistance in developing aggregate gradations for recycled glass in bridge projects. When Sunflower Diversified Services begins their recycle of glass, the county send the finished product to FHWA and it will do the testing to see if the material can be used and also at what percentage can be used in an abutment.
• KDOT has hired a consultant to provide a bridge inspection for the bridge just to the east of Kiowa Road over the Walnut Creek on East Barton County Road. The structure did not have any plans available and was built in the 30s. The road was closed for about four hours for the inspection. The structure is concrete which makes it difficult to determine what steel was used for reinforcement in the structure.

Road and Bridge Director Dale Phillips
• Asphalt work continues on Southeast 50 Road and will move to Southeast 20 Road.
• Asphalt work was completed on Southwest 30 Road and Southwest 20 Avenue.
• Sign vandalism occurred at the work zones.
• Drainage and ditch work projects were completed north of Ellinwood on Northeast 110 Avenue.
• Mowing continues on right of way in southeast Barton County. This is the second pass of the 389 miles of right of way.
• Sign work continues as needed. Eight stop signs and posts were replaced – four due to vandalism and four due to accidents. Staff repaired bridge marker signs damaged by harvest equipment.
• New employees received CDL driver’s licenses. Training on equipment operations and roller operations continues.
Noxious Weed
• Noxious Weed spraying continues on county and KDOT right of way.
• Field spraying for bindweed, musk thistle and Johnson grass is in full swing.
• Customer contacts continued daily as the weeds are growing with the wet weather.

 Information Technology Director John Debes
• Continue working with the Register of Deeds Office on updating cemetery information. Data from Road and Bridge will be incorporated into the new cemetery database. This will increase the viability of the data for various departments.
• Installed new/updated PC’s, repaired and/or replaced printers, scanners etc. in most of the County offices. Removed malware from several PC’s.
• Finished installing new security cameras for the Courthouse. These are connected to both 911 and the Sheriff’s Office.
• Received approval to purchase additional batteries for uninterrupted power systems. The batteries have been received, charged and installed.