Spike in computer chip prices felt by county's IT director; bids received on HVAC, dust control

By Charlene Sims, Journal staff

LCJeditory@icloud.com

MOUND CITY – Linn County Commissioners Jason Hightower and Jim Johnson heard reports from several departments on Monday, March 3.

Information Technology (IT) Director Chris Martin told the commissioners that because of chip shortages he had decided to purchase a new server for a backup domain controller and some other virtualization on that. Martin said that he had put $15,000 in the IT budget for this but had not planned on purchasing it until the second quarter of the year.

Martin explained that due to the current chip shortage, all of the vendor sales representatives that he uses have contacted him and said those prices are going to go up and they are going to jump fast.

“And boy, are they,” said Martin. “So, to try to get in on the lower price because most of them are saying that it is going to happen at the end of this month.

“But, that being said, I got  a couple of different vendor pricings. Went with the best one here, which was the cheapest. But what I am saying, I was priced out Friday morning. That was already invalid. Some of the parts that were in that setup, I can’t get.

“So, I redid it this morning. Right now, this machine is $13,557.43. Like I say, we budgeted for $15,000 for the whole thing. I don’t know if they are going to have a shipping charge with that. Plus what I guess I am saying is I’d like to get approval to spend up to the $15,000 I want to stay under that, but I’m betting that there might still be some adjustments.

“I need to try to purchase that today to be able to even get the hardware At this point, the price is good for what we expected, but they’re running out of memory. Mainly the memory chips, they’re just saying we can’t get them.

The commissioners voted to allow Martin to purchase a server to not exceed the $15,000 that was budgeted.

In other business, the commissioners:

• Decided to not renew the county’s membership for Southeast Kansas Tourism for $75. Hightower said he did not see how $75 was going to benefit or hinder the county. Johnson said they could use Facebook and he was good with not renewing the membership.

• Approved the economic development ad for a part-time director that Ware showed them.

• Opened dust control bids. They were:

– Scotwood Industries, LLC,  2500 gallon minimum at $1.83 per gallon or 4300 gallon

minimum at a $1.50 per gallon.

– Home City Grain, Home, Kansas a full tanker is $1.35 per gallon or a 2,000 gallon

minimum delivery is $1.40 per gallon.                                                                                             – Platte River Dust Control, $1.42 gallon for 4,400 gallons for a full truck load

   Public Works Administrator Jesse Walton will qualify the bids and bring the information

back next week.

• Opened the heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) bids. They were from:

– Webber Heating and Cooling, Parker, semiannual plan at $3,900 per year, quarterly plan

at $6,240 per year.

–  Myrick Mechanical at Pleasanton, $6,542.72 with installments of $1,635.68 per quarter.

  Walton will qualify the bids.

• At Walton’s recommendation, the commissioners awarded Scarecrow Farms the county   mowing contract for $20,367 for the 2026 season. There were no other bids.

• Approved raising the starting salary for the seasonal mowers from $13.12 to $15.10.    

• Learned from Walton that the old jail demolition would start on Monday, March 30.

• Approved Linn County’s on-call engineering firm, Cook, Flatt and Strobel, to inspect 196 bridges at $139 each for a total of $27,244.

• Learned from Walton that the old military bridge plans were sent to the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT). There will be an onsite meeting in the next three or four weeks. Walton asked if they wanted to come out to this meeting because it was his first meeting like this. They did not comment.

•.  Went into executive session for 15 minutes with Walton, County Counselor Jacklyn

Paletta and the two commissioners for attorney-client privilege pending litigation.

•  Went into executive session for 20 minutes with Walton, Paletta, the two commissioners

and an attorney from Foulston Siefkin on the phone for attorney-client privilege pending

litigation.

• Heard from Dave Saker of Dave’s Towing Service who was inquiring about where his company stood on getting back on the county’s towing list. He said that they had turned in more information to the sheriff’s office but had not heard anything. The commissioners had not received any information on the new application, so they asked Ware if she would check on it. The Sakers will go to sheriff’s office and see if they will send the information to the commissioners.

• Approved the change in the invoice for the repairs on the CAT grader from $57,000 to $60,516.