The Lyon County Courthouse will soon get another X-ray machine to screen baggage as it comes into the courthouse and it will cost the county a little under $29,000.
During Wednesday’s Lyon County commission meeting, commissioners were told that the courthouse’s X-ray machine is not functioning properly. Since Wednesday of last week, the X-ray machine hasn’t had a complete day without going down. At mid-morning this Wednesday, the X-ray machine was again down, the screens dark and bags were being hand searched.
“These are problems that keep coming up and we really think it’s time to purchase another one,” Jeff Cope, security supervisor of the Lyon County Courthouse said on Wednesday.
The machine the courthouse has now is a 2001 model. Three bids were solicited for a new machine. The bids are between $29,950 and $33,599.
Commissioners approved the purchase this morning on a bid of $28,650 for a High-Scan Smith-Heimann X-ray machine from a company called Secur Mar in Indiana. Once the order is completed, the company can have the machine in 30 to 45 days. Commissioner Scott Briggs made the motion to approve the purchase and Commissioner Bob Davis seconded. The motion passed 3-0.
Commissioners on Wednesday also heard from Steve Samuelson Lyon County zoning administrator and flood plain manager about a few possibilities for the county. The first thing Samuelson brought before commissioners was the possibility of hosting a grant writing school in Emporia through the Grantmanship Training Center. Samuelson said instead of paying for him to go to the conference, the organization would pay the county to host the event and allow four employees instead of one to go.
“We could have people coming into town, eating in our restaurants, staying in our hotels,” Samuelson said.
Samuelson said the earliest this could happen was July of this year, but he’d rather wait until a couple of weeks before Emporia State University’s fall semester starts in August.
Samuelson presented another idea: having another grant writing event in the area by getting people who have written grants in Lyon County and invite those people to speak to people who haven’t written grants.
“This is people from Lyon County telling other people from Lyon County how to do it,” Samuelson said. “If we have this within a week or two of the other conference, we can promote one event at the other.”
The last item Samuelson discussed was getting the county involved in a program that the Shawnee County Commission is involved in. Shawnee County has signed up for the Facilities Conservation Improvement Program through the Kansas Energy Office. A company would come in, evaluate the county’s facilities and see how energy can be saved. According to the FCIP’s website, the county would enter into an agreement with a private energy service company. The company will identify and evaluate energy-saving opportunities and then recommend a package of improvements to be paid for through savings. The company will guarantee that savings meet or exceed annual payments to cover all project costs.
Wasp (anonymous) says...
Wow! $29,000 to replace a 6 year old X-Ray machine. Anyone look into repair costs? Just think how much gravel we could have put on the roads for $29,000. I wonder if the city is pitching in on this?
April 19, 2007 at 9:26 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )