County beginning to draft chip-seal plans for next two years

By KELSEY UNRUH

Staff writer

With the amount of rain Marion County has been receiving this year, many of the roads have been needing repair.

At a county commission meeting on Monday, road superintendent Randy Crawford proposed a possible plan for 2016 and 2017.

The plan introduced calls for chip sealing various stretches that draw high traffic.

For 2016, the roads would include 4 miles between 290th and 330th Rds. on Limestone Rd., 18 miles between Diamond and Wagon Wheel Rds. on 290th Rd., 3 miles of Pawnee Rd. at Marion Reservoir, and 9 miles on Kanza Rd. from 200th to 290th Rds. The last stretch included 14 miles from Goldenrod to Remington Rds., even though it is actually an 11- mile stretch.

For 2017, the roads include 10 miles from Marion to US-50 on Sunflower Rd., half a mile at Hillsboro Industrial Rd. of Jade Rd., 12 miles of Indigo Rd. from Hillsboro to US-50, 14 miles of Nighthawk Rd. from 60th to 200th Rds., and 5 miles on Old Mill Rd. from 10th to 60th Rds.

Commissioners will talk more about the road project plan when they prepare the budget. Cost for 2016 was estimated at $485,425.50 and $561,456.00 for 2017.

Later, commission chairman Dan Holub expressed concern about the possibility of utility and oil company trucks tearing up county roads in wet weather.

“Some of these roads, if you go through them right now, you’re going to leave 10-, 12-, 14-inch deep tracks,” Holub said.

The board also addressed fuel, sign, and tire bids.

Fuel bids of $16,860 and sign bids of $7,378.12 were accepted, but bids totaling more than $32,000 for tires were sent back because desired name brands were not specified.

“They try to stick in Chinese tires that last 500 miles,” road superintendent Randy Crawford said.

Produce farmer Ron Jirak expressed an interest in having a 45 mph speed limit by his business on 290th Rd. Commissioners feared that all businesses would want this, so the sheriff was to look into enforcement of current limits first.