Thursday, March 8, 2007

County puts 1,369 lots on sale block

by Kenneth Lassiter

County officials have the mother of all sealed bid sales coming up as 1,369 county-owned parcels are on the block and set for an April bid opening.

Jan Hayes, county counselor, told county commissioners Monday the list of parcels would be published in the Independent in the March 15, March 22 and March 29 issues. The bid deadline would be April 6 with bids set to be opened April 9.

Mary Underwood, county treasurer, said the vast majority of the list consists of parcels in the lakeside subdivisions with a few parcels in the other unincorporated areas of the county. The sale will include lots that have passed through county tax sales in the past.

Commissioners also Monday approved bids for both fuel and two new motor graders for the county road and bridge department on the recommendation of department officials.

Commissioners accepted Jackson Farmers’ low bid of .0525 cents over cost per gallon for diesel, biodiesel and unleaded fuels to be delivered to both Oskaloosa and Valley Falls department locations.

George Pogge, road and bridge superintendent, detailed the department’s breakdown of the four bids received for motor graders from Martin Tractor, Murphy Tractor, G.W. Van Kepple and Berry Tractor. Pogge broke down the bids by price minus trade-in value on the two graders the county is replacing. Martin led that list with a total price of $118,000 for both graders. Murphy’s cost was next at $119,824 followed by Berry at $126,620 and Van Kepple at $144,000.

Martin also led by way in total ownership cost, which was generated by dividing the base bid and minimum buyback offer by 7,500 hours. Martin’s total in that category was $9.93 per hour compared to the other three companies that had totals over $10 per hour. Pogge also pointed out Martin had the best delivery time stated in two weeks from the date of the decision.

Commissioners unanimously approved buying two Caterpillar 12H graders from Martin Tractor at a total cost of $118,000.

In other business Monday, the commission:

• Canvassed the Feb. 27 primary elections. Twenty-two provisional ballots were considered and Lucy Patterson of the county clerk’s office reported 20 were counted. No positions in any of the races changed hands.

• Approved vouchers, purchase card account requests and tax change orders.

• Heard an update from Eloise Tichenor, planning and zoning director.

• Heard an update from Pogge. He showed commissioners pictures of the current bridge projects on-going in the county. Commissioners plan to take a field trip to see some of the bridge work as well as Oak Road south of Williamstown at 8:30 a.m. March 12.

• Heard an update from Eileen Filbert, health department director. Commissioners approved grant applications for the department.

• Approved changes to the bereavement leave policy to reflect the addition of step-parent and step-child to the definition of immediate family and make other small changes.

• Met in executive session with Pogge, Mike Hayes, Jan Hayes and county clerk Linda Buttron to discuss issues of attorney-client privilege for 15 minutes.

• Approved a policy for disposal of surplus property.

• Approved the addition of a policy to the employee handbook that authorized pay for county employees called away from their jobs to serve as volunteer firemen or first responders.

• Authorized the county counselor to draft deeds transferring two county-owned lots in Lake Ridge Estates to that subdivision’s board for public use.

• Heard an update from Delia Heston, register of deeds.

• Met with Jeff Herrig, undersheriff, regarding the county’s cell phone service contract. Herrig said his department would not use Treos as originally bid by Cingular as phones. He asked for a couple extra phones for use by the department. Commissioner David Christy planned to contact Cingular to suggest revisions to the bid price with plans to reconsider the proposal at a future meeting.