By Terry Bailey
The Mitchell County Commissioners conducted their weekly meeting at the Courthouse on Monday, April 18th. All Commissioners and the County Clerk were present.
The meeting began with a fifteen-minute executive session with Yvonne Melton, the County Treasurer, to discuss non-elected personnel. No decisions were made as a result of that closed session.
The recent resignation of Sherry Koster as the area Sanitation Inspector resulted in advertisements for that job vacancy being placed in area newspapers. Phillip Murrow was present to indicate his interest in being hired for that job. After a twenty-minute executive session, the Commissioners offered the job to Murrow. He accepted. Murrow will be able to start "right away."
The highlight of the morning's activities was the opening of bids for the concrete work planned to replace the Courthouse parking lot on the east side of the building and replacement work for some of the deteriorating sidewalks around the Courthouse. The Commissioners were pleased to have received four bids to do the work, considering the fact that there are many more jobs available in today's market than there are contractors to do the work.
The four bids received, in descending order cost of the bid, were:
APAC - Salina - $283,473.42
D&M Contracting - Beloit - $159,275
Trenton Harr - Beloit - $140,156
Kansas Sand & Contracting - Salina - $118,000
The Commissioners eliminated both the top and the bottom bids. The APAC bid was well above the other bids and the Kansas Sand bid was well below the other bids. This left the two local contractors from which to choose. Brian Streit, Courthouse Maintenance Supervisor, was directed to contact the local contractors and make sure that all the details and specifications of the bids were addressed equally and to determine when the work could begin and their expected completion date. Streit will report back to the Commissioners with his findings.
Streit reported that he believes he has found a contractor to remove the stumps from the recent tree removal in front of the County Health Department building for $400. He was given approval to proceed with that action.
Eric Hamel gave his monthly report regarding the activity of the EMS Service in March.
Fifty ambulance calls were reported for March. Forty-eight of these runs were in Mitchell County, one to Salina, and one to Cloud County. Seven runs were conducted during the five p.m. to six p.m. time period. Four each were completed during the nine a.m. to ten a.m. and the eight p.m. to nine p.m. time slot. The remainder of the calls were evenly distributed around the clock. The busiest day of the week was Thursday with thirteen calls, closely followed by Wednesday with ten runs. The average time expired from the time a call is received until an ambulance leaves the barn is one point eight minutes.
Cortney Murrow, County Health Official, reported she was working on a grant that would pay for some of the cost of the new Health Department parking lot. County Engineer, Stuart Porter, has given her a rough estimate in the area of $70,000. Should the grant be received, it would reduce the cost to Mitchell County considerably. Murrow also told the Commissioners that, as far as she knows, there are no active Covid cases in Mitchell County.
Having addressed all items on the printed agenda, the meeting was adjourned.