The Emporia Gazette

May 28, 2012

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Lyon County commissioners tackled a packed agenda this morning. Check here for a look at today's meeting.

8:40 a.m.

Chip Woods, Lyon County engineer, presented the following items to commissioners:

• The purchase of approximately 500 feet of new 24” steel casing at $32 a foot from Frank Black Pipe & Supply Co. for an estimated total of $16,000. The item was placed on Thursday’s consent agenda.

• Approval for Woods to attend the MINK 2010 conference in St. Joseph, Mo., on Sept. 29 and 30 and pay the related travel expenses from the Road and Bridge Fund. The KCHA will pay the registration fee. The item was placed on Thursday’s consent agenda.

• The approval of eight bridge replacement projects to be surveyed, designed and built by county personnel. Woods said the process will take around two years.

• Approval of a request from Eagle Creek Watershed concerning Road N north of Road 60. The request was placed on Thursday’s consent agenda.

• Approval of the purchase of two wheel assemblies for D-129, the Caterpillar loader that is used in the salt dome, from Key Parts in Birmingham, Ala., for $1,975. The request was placed on Thursday’s consent agenda.

9 a.m.

Commissioners discussed Road and Bridge’s 2011 budget, which is slated to increase just more than four mills. Commission vice-chairman Rollie Martin asked Woods about the asphalt roads in Lyon County.

“What’s the difference between what you’re doing now and proposed repairs and upgrades you’re making in the plan next year?” Martin asked.

“This winter was really hard on asphalt roads,” Woods said. “They don’t have a base under them. The water stays under them and they don’t drain out because the ditches are filled with water.”

Woods added that a fourth of the asphalt roads in Lyon County are sealed each year.

“We try to do about a quarter of our asphalt roads a year on sealing,” he said. “If you try to go much more than four years on seal coat you have trouble patching. The sealing we need to do every year to keep on three to four year cycle.”

9:30 a.m.

Gary Stapp, Lyon County appraiser, gave a departmental update. He said things are going well and several projects are underway including looking at land influence factors.

He also talked about the need to replace several pieces of equipment including:

• A laptop for a field appraiser at $550. The current laptop the employee reflects light outdoors and has to be used in the shade, slowing down productivity.
• A GIS computer at between $900 and $1,100. The computer that is now being used is running slow and needs replaced, Stapp said.
• A GIS color copier at $4,387. The machine the GIS office has now is 10 years old. The proposed replacement machine from Century United would replace the GIS machine and a copier/printer combination machine.

Commissioners placed the items on next Wednesday’s agenda for further discussion and more specific numbers.

10 a.m.

Brian Anstey, Lyon County Jail, discussed the purchase of chairs, uniforms and three computers for the jail. One computer is for the LPN in the nurses station and the other two are for the work release coordinator and the administrative assistant and will not exceed $2,600. Commissioners placed the item on Thursday’s consent agenda.

Anstey also asked for the replacement of 10 chairs. The chairs the jail originally has in various offices in the jail and Lyon County Sheriff’s Office were purchased in 2001. Commissioners placed the item on Thursday’s consent agenda.

The final request was for four set of uniforms for each officer. The department has around 40 officers. Anstey said the majority of the staff’s uniforms are in rough shape. The new uniforms would have a less militaristic appearance, Richard Old, Lyon County under sheriff, said. The item was placed on Thursday’s agenda.

10:25 a.m.

Old reviewed the purchasing policy for the 2011 Fleet Management Plan for the sheriff’s office with commissioners. The plan is to replace seven vehicles, six of them law enforcement, one of them jail, Old said.

“The trade-in value is now up to a third of the purchase price which is a big improvement than what we were getting at $1,200 a car when we started out,” Old said.

Commission Chairman Scott Briggs asked what would happen if they waited one more year to replace the cars. Old said the maintenance costs would go up and the trade-in value on the vehicles would go down.

“I think probably if the plan is working and we’re actually saving money by keeping a fairly (current) fleet, I don’t have a problem with it,” Briggs said.

The item was placed on Thursday’s consent agenda.