In other business Monday morning, the Barton County Commission:
• Approved the renewal of the annual peopleware agreement with Computer Information Concepts Inc., the company that provides the county-wide management software package, for a total cost of $46,885. The agreement details responsibilities for the soft and hardware, including response time, said County Clerk Donna Zimmerman. In 2013, the county purchased a commercial software package from CIC. Highly summarized, the software includes tax administration, budgetary/fund accounting, indexing/imaging, payroll/personnel, and time/attendance.
Commissioners cut one person from the information technology department when they first contracted with CIC and told Zimmerman Monday they wanted to make sure the company stays responsive to the county’s needs.
• Approved the Kansas Department of Transportation Federal Fund Exchange Agreement. KDOT has approved the county’s request to participate in the FY2017 Federal Fund Exchange Program. In exchange for the federal monies authorized, KDOT will reimburse the county, with state funds, for one hundred percent of the costs incurred pursuant to the attached agreement, up to $244,414.04. This represents a 10 percent reduction of the total funds available, or $271,571.16, said County Engineer Barry McManaman.
The 10 percent is kept by the state as an administration fee. The advantage, McManaman said is that the money comes from the state with fewer strings attached.
Paving the way for the start of 2017 summer county road resurfacing projects, the Barton County Commission Monday morning approved the bid from Venture Corporation of Great Bend for $7.43 per ton for cold mix asphalt.
The bid called for the mixing approximately 25,000 tons of cold mix asphalt material, utilizing aggregate and asphalt oil supplied by the county. The total cost of the job is $180,750.
Using County specifications, the contractor will be required to mix asphalt at the county pit on South Washington in Great Bend. This was the only bid and is unchanged from 2016.
Road and Bridge Director Dale Phillips said this cold mix complements the 35,000 tons county crews will mix using the county’s asphalt plant.
In all, 25,000 tons of asphalt costs around a $1 million, Phillips said. And, it takes only about a month to use it all.
“It goes pretty quickly,” he said. But, “it’s out on county roads. We do have good roads in Barton County.”
Phillips’ staff will begin mixing asphalt this week for April and May projects. Venture will take over in May.
The county purchased its asphalt plant in 1987. In the beginning, this facility produced all the asphalt the county needed.
However, “the plant got older and older,” Phillips said. In an effort to extend its life, the county started contracting for a portion of the cold mix from outside vendors.
Eventually, Venture expressed an interest and the Great Bend company has been doing the work for the past several years.
Ultimately, it would be better for the county to purchase a new plant so it could make all the cold mix needed, but the costs have to be weighed, Phillips said. Such a purchase is in the department’s five-year plan.
It was noted by Commissioner Alicia Straub that even if a new asphalt plant cost $1 million, it would pay for itself in about five years considering what the county is spending to pay an outside company.
