Township treasurer bonds OKed
The Barton County Commission Monday morning approved township treasurer bonds.
According to state law, before entering office, the township treasurer shall execute a bond in an amount determined by County Commissioners. The amount and sufficiency of the bond shall be conditioned upon the faithful discharge of the treasurer’s duties.
The bond shall then be filed in the office of the County Clerk’s Office, County Clerk Donna Zimmerman said. This is done every four years following the election of new township treasurers.
Zimmerman said the county uses a formula that takes 25 percent of a township’s combined budget and reserves to arrive at a bond amount. The bonds are also impacted by a township’s valuation.
So, the size of the varies widely. For example, Grant Township’s bond is $18,000 while Lakin Township’s is $226,000.
In other business, the commission:
• Approved a bid from Schendel Pest Services for $4,902 to provide monthly pest control and extermination services for Barton County owned buildings, excluding the Sheriff’s Office, Detention Center and Barton County Landfill, for 2017. The county accepted bids from qualified vendors and Lindy’s Pest Control and Schendel both bid on the work.
The years of weather and traffic have finally taken their toll on the Arkansas River bridge on SW 50 Avenue, also known as the Radium Road.
So, the Barton County Commission Monday morning approved hiring Kirkham Michael Consulting of Ellsworth to design deck repairs on the well-traveled span. The firm’s fee will be $18,750.
“We have some deck issues,” County Engineer Barry McManaman said. “There has been some significant deterioration of the deck surface.”
The Road and Bridge Department has spent considerable time doing what it can to patch the surface, but now it is time for more substantive work, he said. “We would be smart to go ahead and repair that deck.”
Repair work will include milling of the asphalt, a light milling of the concrete deck, concrete patching, renovation of outside deck edge and a concrete overlay. Damage has also been caused by run-off of salt used to clear ice, and these improvements should help stave off further salt problems.
The bridge will remain open to one lane traffic with signals during construction. There are few Ark River crossings, so he said it is important to keep the bridge in service.
“This is turn-key,” McManaman said. The county hopes to go out for project bids sometime in 2017.
The same bridge had the expansion joints repaired in early 2012. But, at that time, no deck work was done.
