When it comes to taxes, Barton County residents may have to rely on their memories, County Treasurer Kevin Wondra said.

The State of Kansas officials have decided that they are going to discontinue sending out reminder notices for vehicle renewals like they currently do. The Kansas Department or Revenue will send out postcards instructing Kansans how to retrieve their renewal totals online.

 State officials are giving each county an option, he said. They can use their own resources and manpower to send out reminder notices or just allow the state to send out the cards. 

“Our office is in the process of deciding how we want to proceed,” Wondra said. “We are weighing the cost of printing and mailing reminders versus receiving numerous calls from taxpayers who may not be able to go online to get their renewal information.”

On another note, the office is starting to receive the second-half tax payments that are due May 11. But, the county is not mailing out reminder notices again this year. 

“We will be emailing a general reminder to all the people who sent us their email addresses within the next couple weeks,” he said. 

The information was part of the bi-weekly departmental update presented at the Monday morning Barton County Commission Meeting. Other topics included:

Treasurer’s Office

• The Treasurer’s Office processed a total of 1,448 motor vehicle transactions between March 26 and April 8. The end of the month brought in quite a few last-minute renewals. 

• The bookkeepers have the bank accounts reconciled for March. All daily work is current. 

County Engineer Clark Rusco

• Bridge scour protection at many of the bridges will need to be addressed in the future. Rusco said the Kansas Department of Transportation on spent several million dollars to provide bridge scour reports for each county in Kansas. 

Barton County has 30-plus bridges listed in its report. The Federal Highway Administration and KDOT can require inspections every year for these structures.

“We currently inspect these structures once every two years,” Rusco said. Most of the bridges can be removed from the list after adequate scour protection has been installed. 

Rusco said personnel are now working on a construction plan to address the scour issues for the structures identified in the report. Three or four years will be needed to finish this project.

Barton County Road and Bridge crews can do the needed work at each site and many of the structures can then be removed from the list. 

 Road and Bridge Director Dale Phillips 

Road and Bridge

• Over the reporting period, bridge crews have worked on six bridge structures repairing erosion, removing debris, repairing wash out scour holes and taking care of other drainage issues. Drainage work in the Hitschman area was completed during this time period.

• Sand Spreaders were removed from truck beds and serviced accordingly as spring has arrived and summer work has started. These trucks will be used to haul material. 

• Staff cleaned out two miles of road ditch and repaired erosion.

• Sign work included emergency callout on seven vandalized signs and regular sign work included the repair of 21 signs throughout the county. New sign posts were installed on Railroad Avenue overlay project for completion.

• Paint Striping on Railroad Avenue construction will be completed the week of April 13th -17th.

• Asphalt Pothole patching has begun this week.

• Asphalt work has started on major projects and planning has been completed for 2015 work schedules. 

• Other Bridge work, staff removed a low water crossing for replacement construction south of Odin.

• Bridge crews installed road closed barricades for repair of a bridge on East Barton County Road.

Noxious Weed

• Noxious Weed eradication is in full swing beginning this week.

• Staff worked on job description requirements and delivered voting booth for the County Clerk’s office.

Solid Waste Director Phil Hathcock

In the past reporting period:

• 1017.61 tons of municipal solid waste

• 229.46 tons of construction/demolition waste

• 69.96 tons of special waste

• 662 loads of waste received for disposal

• $49,670.25 of revenue generated through disposal fees

Given the recent high winds, landfill employees performed litter clean-up operations several times.

911 Director Doug Hubbard

March 2015 Statistics  

• 911 landlines, 295

• 911 wireless, 952

• Administrative lines, 10,283

• Total calls, 11,530

• Radio calls, 112,870

• Calls for service, 3,263

County Appraiser Barb Esfeld

Valuation notices have been mailed to the Barton County taxpayer’s on March 13. Taxpayer’s have 30 days to appeal their valuation from the date the notice was mailed. 

The deadline to file Personal Property was Wednesday. Late filing penalties are applied as follows:

March 16 through April 15, 05 percent

April 16 through May 15, 10 percent

May 16 through June 15, 15 percent

June 16 through July 15, 20 percent

July 16 through March 14 of the following year, 25 percent

Failure to file, 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 1 unless an extension is granted. Taxpayer’s will have until May 15 to appeal their personal property and oil/gas valuations. 

If any taxpayer’s have questions regarding their valuation or personal property they are encouraged to contact the Appraiser’s office at 620-793-1821.