By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY – On Monday, Nov. 18, County Clerk David Lamb presented a bill separate from the customary claims to the commissioners. The bill was from JRK Portable Welding for $8,250 for constructing the railing on the steps on the south side of the courthouse.
Bills that are approved by department heads are put in the claims but Commission Chair Danny McCullough had been in charge of the recruitment of J.R. Kerr and the signing off of the bills for the project.
According to the Linn County policy on purchasing services, there is no specific requirement for bidding or seeking quotes for purchases under $5,000. The county handbook also says that bids $5,001 and over shall go through the bidding process and contracts should not be knowingly staged or separated into smaller units or segments solely for the purpose of evading competitive bidding requirements.
The handbook and statute do allow exceptions to going through the bidding process if the situation is an emergency, however, no emergency was declared for these projects. It was not mentioned that other companies were contacted. The stairs on the courthouse have been in this condition for a year or more.
In April, County Treasurer Janet Kleweno had been in to complain about the stairs, but no action was taken about hiring someone to redo them until August. No request for proposals or other notices were published about this project.
Commissioner Jim Johnson asked Public Works Director Shaun West what the overage was for.
West said that the railing had to be built new rather than using the old parts because of the changes in the steps.
“So they rebuilt new rails?” asked Johnson.
West said that was correct.
Johnson made a motion to pay JRK $8,250. It was an overage and additional time that came in $4,500 more than what the original bid was. Commission Jason Hightower seconded the motion. JRK also received $5,000 for the railings on the front of the courthouse on Sept. 30.
In contrast, Terracon Engineering, which is working on several projects at the landfill, asked to add $1,275 to their original bid of $12,500 for developing the plan to present to the state on closing up the 30-year groundwater monitoring contract of the wells at the landfill. The reason for the additional cost was that more time was required because of problems getting information from the state to complete their work.
The commissioners have postponed approving this additional amount for several weeks until they get a detailed explanation why this was not included in the original bid. West said that Terracon representative Tony Mellini was going to reach out to the project manager to get a definitive answer.
West said that Mellini understood the county’s concerns that if they are underbidding projects and then increasing those costs, it was a concern for the county that they have already paid for a bid on that project.
In other business, the commissioners:
• Approved a resolution to surplus a desk and 23 chairs from the health department. Since the resolution was originally written, Chasity Ware, the new economic development director has requested the desk for her office.
• Approved Johnson as delegate to the Kansas Worker’s Risk Cooperative for Counties (KWORCC) conference and Hightower as the alternate.
• Approved Johnson as the voting delegate to the Kansas Association of Counties conference, Hightower as first delegate and Lamb as second delegate.
• Learned that attorney Mark Hagen was preparing a contract for the county to give the Parker Senior Center to the city of Parker.
• Learned from Road Operations Director Jesse Walton that the engineer has signed off on the plan for pouring concrete. Walton says he has expressed his concerns but the county has to get this done.
• Heard that Walton was meeting with Brad Aust on Wednesday about roads. Walton said we have to help him keep his operation up and going.
• Directed Walton to develop a spreadsheet comparing specific types of gravel prices to each other from Hamm and Whitaker quarries.
• Heard from West that Straight Line Striping has suggested that the commissioners use the prices from the striping on Wall Street to get an idea what it would cost for other locations. West is working on how to separate out just centerline striping from that information.
• Heard from West that mowing bids were going out this week.
• Learned more about the dock that was given to the Linn County Park by Evergy. West said that it will be a little over $5,000 on parts and with volunteer help they will get it configured in the shape they need it. West said that he was not going to make the recommendation for the $5,000 until the budget was looked at again.
• Learned from West that the company working on the reservation software for the Linn County Park has asked the manager of the park to upload all of the information.
• Learned from West about staff openings in the Public Works department. He said they were down two at the Linn County Park (a marina clerk and a part-time maintenance worker), two in the road shops and one administrative.
West said he was going to look at all of the county websites and make sure that all of those have been uploaded and the job descriptions for those have been uploaded. He said he was going to post just a generic advertisement for positions opening with the county newspaper then he will turn around and have those listed in detail on the county website.
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