Staff writer
Marion County may need to change the names of several north-south roads, Road and Bridge Superintendent John Summerville said Tuesday.
State law will require that road signs have letters at least six inches tall beginning in May 2012. County road signs now have four-inch letters.
“If you have six-inch letters on Chisholm Trail, your sign will be four feet long,” Summerville told county commissioners.
Bigger signs are a problem because of wind and costs.
“Wagonwheel, Chisholm Trail will shake like a top whenever wind comes up,” he said.
Changing road names would be a challenge. The county would have to notify everyone living on the road. It also would create a lot of work for post offices, Summerville said.
Many counties gave roads letters instead of names, so Alamo would be A Road, Bison would become B Road, and so on, he said.
Commissioner Randy Dallke said he was concerned by the repeated theft of certain road signs.
“No matter what anybody says, Mustang needs to change,” Dallke said.
Replacing road signs will be a monumental task regardless of whether the county changes road names, Summerville said.
The county has 37 roads that run east and west and 29 that run north and south. Each intersection requires two signs.
Commissioners said they wanted public input on the matter.
Letters can be sent to County Clerk Carol Maggard at P.O. Box 219, Marion KS 66861-0219.
In other business Tuesday:
- Commissioners met in closed session for 40 minutes with Deputy Clerk Tina Spencer to review employee evaluations. They met in closed session with Rollin Schmidt for 15 minutes to discuss personnel. Schmidt directs the transfer station and noxious weed and household hazardous waste departments.
- The county wrote off $4,062 in bad debt from the county’s microloan program. The program provides startup and expansion capital for businesses.
- Key Convenience LLC received a $15,000 loan from the microloan program to open a convenience store and deli, Economic Development Director Teresa Huffman said. The location is not final.
- Cooperative Grain and Supply of Hillsboro will provide 3,600 gallons of diesel to two locations for $7,029. Cardie Oil of Tampa bid $7,106. Cardie Oil will provide 2,950 gallons of diesel at two other locations for $5,764. Cooperative Grain and Supply bid $5,801.
- Marion County Health Department will provide hearing, vision, and scoliosis screenings to all the schools in the county through the special education cooperative. The county will be reimbursed $5,500 for the service.
- Two months of countywide recycling cost the county a net of $297, Schmidt said. Most of the expenses were one-time startup expenses. The expenses were offset by $198 saved by not sending 12 tons of waste to a landfill and $83 paid by Sonoco of Hutchinson for recycled goods.