Thursday, May 17, 2007

Flood damage light to roads, bridges

by Kenneth Lassiter

County commissioners got the final verdict Monday on the amount of damage done to county roads and bridges May 4 to 7 and the news was good.

George Pogge, road and bridge superintendent, met with commissioners for his weekly update and said the work the department’s been doing to open ditches and keep roads in good shape paid off in no major damage being caused by the flooding. He said some debris is left to be cleaned from county roads and bridges, and crews are still unclogging mud-packed culverts but that’s about as bad as it gets.

Pogge said a bridge under construction on 178th Street on the west side of the county took a hit from a swollen Cedar Creek but shouldn’t take a great deal of work to get back in shape, and another bridge project at 114th and Dickinson stayed intact well despite high water.

Pogge said he planned to meet with state and Douglas County officials Wednesday to discuss the Lecompton Bridge project, as the contractor in that case had some cranes and other equipment swamped by the Kansas River. Pogge said the cranes were back in use and most of the work material was stored up out of the water’s reach.

Commissioner David Christy asked how much the project would be slowed down. Pogge said the contractor didn’t seem very concerned about the swamped equipment and he would find out the time frame for any delay at the Wednesday meeting. He said the project shouldn’t be slowed down very much by the incident. Commissioner Don Edmonds said he saw in a TV news report that any slow down caused by the flooding on the project would be short.

With the 2008 budget season getting started, commissioners heard budget requests from Meals on Wheels, Cottonwood and the county historical society as part of Monday’s agenda.

Jane Metzger of Meals on Wheels reported the agency was asking for $8,000 in funding for next year, which is a $2,000 increase in funding from 2007. The increase was attributed to proposed minimum wage increases that would affect the non-profit organization and rising gas prices.

Sharon Spratt of Cottonwood Inc. brought along three other Cottonwood officials to present the non-profit agency’s budget. Cottonwood provides services for people with developmental disabilities in the county. Spratt said Cottonwood was requesting level funding from its 2007 request, which is $83,593.

Spratt said Cottonwood provided service to 68 clients from Jefferson County over the past year, with 12 being part of the agency’s Job Link program.

Margaret Dick represented the county historical society, which requested its annual $12,000 in county funding. Dick did say the historical society would appreciate any additional funding for use for increasing maintenance costs and the need for upkeep of the buildings and grounds at Old Jefferson Town. County funding for the society is mainly used for utilities and insurance costs.

The county’s cellular phone plan was also locked in Monday as commissioners finalized a proposal with Cingular Wireless for cell phone service for county departments. Commissioners had previously agreed with Cingular on a proposal only to find the formulas used to figure the cost were incorrect, which led to a higher price. Cingular reworked the numbers and the package of phones, minutes, laptop connections and text messaging needs totaled roughly $16,300.

The county had been spending $23,000 annually on cell phone service split between Verizon and Cingular. Commissioners plan to get the figures of the deal in writing from Cingular to finalize the move.