By NATE KING
Salina Post
The Saline County Board of Commissioners met for its regular meeting this week and discussed granting a bid for bituminous chip sealing, changes to Saline County human resources policy, accepting a local environmental grant, revisiting mowing services for the old jail site and updating one of the district courtrooms.
Board of County Commissioners present on Tuesday, April 9:
District One — Monte Shadwick
District Two — Robert Vidricksen
District Three — Rodger Sparks
District Four — James Weese
District Five — Chairman Joe Hay Jr.
The board of commissioners first approved its consent agenda, which included the regular tax roll adjustments, accounts payable and previous meeting minutes.
Bid considerations, accepting grants, policy revisions
The next agenda item was a bid consideration for bituminous chip sealing. Justin Mader, Saline County engineer, told commissioners that the city had received five bids for the sealing project.
Circle C Paving was the low bidder for all projects, totaling 40 miles of road and costing $1,069,685.00. The County will pay for this project through the Contractual Asphalt Work account, which currently has a balance of $2,700,000.
"We are trying to duplicate the success we had with last year's chip seal," Mader said. "Everybody seemed to be pretty happy with the chip seal we did last year."
The other four quotes are as follows:
Vance Bros- $1,539,620.01
Harbour Construction Inc- $6,477,210.94
Heft and Sons- $1,219,530.00
APAC-Kansas Inc.- $1,272,869.41
Commissioners approved the bid awarded to Circle C Paving in a vote of 5-0.
Saline County Human Resources Director Marilyn Leamer presented the next agenda item — several proposed changes to Saline County personnel policies and procedures.
Commissioner Robert Vidricksen II commented on Leamer's summary of the changes.
"Marilyn, to be honest with you, nearly 150 pages is a lot for me to digest," said Vidricksen.
Vidricksen asked for further clarification on changes to policy concerning the expansion of the County's employee recognition program.
"We used to give little trinkets when you reached certain milestones," Leamer said. For example, at five years of service, they got a Saline County mug, and at ten years of service, they got a keychain.
Lamer said County employees told HR staff they would prefer getting vacation time instead of trinkets as a thank-you for their employment.
Commissioners then considered it for a few more moments until it was motioned for action, which passed 5-0.
Next, commissioners voted unanimously to accept grant dollars for an Environmental Protection Program Grant. Deputy County Administrator Hannah Bett provided commissioners with an overview.
"In mid-March, our Environmental Health division was notified of a grant opportunity through the Kansas Department of Health & Environment for water and wastewater projects for counties," Bett said. "After evaluating the grant opportunity, staff submitted a grant request to purchase portable water testing equipment. The County was notified on April 1 that Saline County would be awarded $1,500 to buy this equipment."
According to County staff, the $1,500 grant will cover the full cost of purchasing a UV light and portable nitrate testing monitor, which tests private water wells for contaminants.
Bett said the County's two environmental health sanitarians will be responsible for using the new equipment.
"As they say there are no free lunches, but this looks pretty free to me, I think we should accept the money," Vidricksen said.
Commissioners voted 5-0 in favor of accepting the funds.
The next item on the agenda was revisiting lawn mowing services at the now Court Services building since the Saline County Sheriff's Office maintenance staff used to mow the lawn at that facility.
Last week, Bett presented various bids for lawn mowing services between April 15 and November 1 of this year, which Vidricksen met with some dissatisfaction. At the April 2 meeting, Shadwick moved the commission table to the topic until next week to avoid paying for lawn mowing services from a local company.
At the April 9 meeting, Bett informed commissioners that the Saline County Building Authority would be unable to provide mowing services for 251 N. 10th, 229 N. Ninth, and 203 N. 10th due to staff constraints and a lack of proper equipment.
Vidricksen said he felt that county departments did not do their due diligence in fulfilling the need for mowing services.
Commissioners voted 4-1 to approve the mowing services bid to ARD Mowing for a cost of $5,945 for 2024 and $6,815 for 2025, with Vidricksen voting against the request for action.
District Court Administrator Todd Heitschmidt presented commissioners with bids for updating one of the courtrooms with an up-to-date audio/visual and hearing-impaired system. Heitschmidt and Chief District Judge Jared Johnson evaluated the proposals based on evaluation criteria. Commissioners voted 5-0 to award the bid of $47,373.80 to Hopp's Sound, located in McPherson, Kansas.
Informational Items
⦁ Emergency Management Quarter 2 Update
⦁ Treasurer'sTreasurer's Bond Interest Report
⦁ Treasurer'sTreasurer's Idle Fund Report
⦁ County Administrator Update
⦁ Commissioner Comments
⦁ Announcements