From one extreme to the other. That is how Barton County Solid Waste Manager Mark Witt described the conditions at the the Barton County Landfill recently.
The facility has experienced “dry and dusty” conditions lately while a month ago, the staff couldn’t wait for the rains to stop. “Now, a little moisture would be beneficial to limit dust problems,” he said.
Meanwhile, the staff is continuing to repair low spots in the disposal areas so that storm water drains to holding areas appropriately.
In other news, he noted that in the last reporting period, the landfill took in:
• 926.59 tons of municipal solid waste
• 248.19 tons of construction/demolition waste
• 115.54 tons of sodium chloride (brine) impacted soil
• 36.18 tons of special waste
• 465 loads of waste received for disposal
It also generated $43,492.78 in revenue.
Witt’s remarks were part of County Administrator Richard Boeckman’s update to the County Commission Monday morning. Other highlights included:
 
County Engineer Clark Rusco
• Met with several townships concerning flood damages to roads and bridges in their townships.
• The bridge contractor began replacement of the truss bridge southeast of Great Bend (north of the Arkansas River). Project should be completed in four months.
• Met with Road and Bridge staff concerning repairs to several locations impacted by the early August rainfall events.
• Completed final arrangements with Federal Highway Administration for travel to Defiance County, Ohio, to meet with road and bridge crews there. Defiance County has built many geosynthetic reinforced soil-integrated bridge system (GRS-IBS) bridges in their county.
According to the FHA, GRS technology consists of closely-spaced layers of geosynthetic fabric and compacted granular earthen fill material. The GRS-IBS system blends the GRS structures, road and bridge.
The application of IBS has several advantages, the FHA reports. The system is easy to design and economically construct.
It can be built in variable weather conditions with readily available labor, materials, and equipment and can easily be modified in the field. This method has significant value when employed for small, single span structures
Defiance County has found the cost to construct the bridges to be considerably cheaper than conventional bridges. Also aquatic passage permitting requirements at bridge structures may make the construction of reinforced-concrete boxes more difficult. Reinforced concrete boxes make up at least 50 per cent of the existing structures in Barton County and most of the RCB’s are at least 60 years old.
The (GRS-IBS) bridge has a very conservative design and the abutments can handle loads considerably above the actual traffic loads. The chart below shows the traffic loads compared to the measured capacity of constructed GRS projects.
• Conference call with consultant and KDOT for High Risk Rural Road (HRRR) grant to extend existing Reinforced concrete box bridges. The RCB extensions will improve the safety on several major corridors in Barton County. The grant is 90/10 and the grant amount is about $710,000. Lane departures are one of the major causes of fatalities in Kansas.

911 Director Doug Hubbard
2013 Statistics August
 911 landline calls, 376
911 wireless, 1,091
Administrative Lines, 10,537
Total calls, 12,004
Radio calls, 101,210
Calls for service, 3,622

Information Technology Director John Debes
• During this period, the systems stopped 50 viruses and 21 intrusions in the last 14 days
• The phone system at the Health Department is now fully under Nex-Tech. All issues have been resolved.
 
Health Director Lily Akings
 Total clinic contacts, 271
• Immunizations, 100
• Family planning, 74
• Sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment, 18
• Maternal and infant (new pregnancies), 020
• Kan Be Healthy physical exams, 5
• Tuberculosis testing and treatment, 22
• Communicable Disease, 5
• Child care licensing, 9
• Healthy Start home visits, 8
Other news:
• The department continues efforts with the Walk, Run, Ride suicide prevention awareness event, planned for Sept. 28 at Barton Community College.
• Flu vaccinations began Monday.
• The Women, Infant and Children (WIC) budget is being adjusted down about $8,000.
• The Summer Street Stroll/senior farmers market ended Sept. 12.