Commissioners Discuss Upcoming Election Information

Commission Chairman, Tom Claussen, opened their weekly meeting Monday morning by discussion information voters should be aware of as the election draws near. County Clerk Chris Treaster was present to verify the information.

Treaster said Tuesday, October 16, is the last day to register in her office. November 2, is the last day her office can mail ballots out to people but advance voting can continue until noon on November 5. Treaster reminded voters they have to bring a photo ID in order to receive a ballot to vote, however people over 65 who still have an expired drivers license with a photo ID on it can still use that picture. She has an approved list of qualifications in her office.

Chairman Claussen said 125 million people cast ballots at the last presidential election but this would be only 42 per cent of this country's population so that really wasn't very good. Clerk Treaster commented it is a lot of work for her office to get ready for an election and each of each vote in the last primary election that was held in August of this year cost the county $17 to $18 dollars a ballot so she appreciates everyone who votes. If more people vote the cost of each vote is less.The Clerk's Office has had 180 advance voters so far. They had 500 advance ballots sent out in the last presidential election, Treaster said. The Commissioners will canvas the votes on Monday, November 12, at 2 p.m. even though the courthouse is closed that day. This date is because of the Kansas Association of Counties Convention the commissioners will be attending during that time.

Galen Seehafer and Jim Marshall, candidates for County Commissioner in the 3rd District were present at the meeting. Seehafer reported the had excellent support from people in the area at the Griffith Family Benefit held Sunday in Sylvan Grove. People from four communities including Hunter, Tipton, Sylvan Grove and Lincoln contributed financially to help the family of Tim Griffith of Hunter who lost his life in a boating accident at Waconda Lake on August 25. The donations far exceeded the expectations of those who organized the benefit, Seehafer said.

Larry Emerson, Public Works, reported his crew finished striping the roads at Asherville and Simpson. A representative of the Ballou Construction Co. of Salina went with him to look at the road north of Tipton because it has a lot of heavy traffic on it as does the road over the Waconda Lake Causeway. These roads were already scheduled to be redone this year and there are some pretty bad drop offs on the edges of the causeway so something needs to be done about them, he said.

Emerson asked Ballou to look these sites and give him an cost comparison estimate to see if it would cost less to have that company reconstitute the old asphalt on the roads than the way the county is doing it now. If it would cost more to have Ballou lay the asphalt back down then the county road and bridge crew could lay it back down themselves. Ballou said the roads weren't wide enough for them to pile the asphalt on the side of the road so the county could do this.

Ballou said they would have no problem with the six miles of road north of Tipton but he was not sure about the sandy edges of the causeway. They can do about one lane of about one and one-half miles in a day. Depending on the estimate it would cost from 37 to 38 thousand dollars for them to do it. Due to the many layers of overlays the roads are getting pretty tall. Removing these top layers would help this problem. Emerson estimated it would cost between 36 and 37 thousand dollars a mile for the county to do this. Ballou is to get back to him with a cost estimate on the work, he said.

Emerson said they have gotten one check of $60,000 back from the State on the Jasmine Trail Bridge. It took about three weeks to get the check back and they have two more payments to come yet. The county crew has finished mowing. The Bridge crew is doing some repair work.

Emerson said someone took the curve sign down on the Jasmine Trail road. Also, someone has been pulling two stop signs out of the ground north of Cawker City, and his crew has had to put them back 3 or 4 times. It is always the same two signs and they never break them off. They just pull them up and throw them in the ditch. He doesn't think it is to allow large equipment to get through because the intersection is wide enough to accommodate that. They plan to start putting up snow fence in the near future. The State stopped this quite a few years ago and some counties no longer do this.

Commissioner Cooper asked Emerson how he felt about the Solid Waste proposal Justin Murdock of Cloud County proposed at the October 8, meeting when Emerson wasn't present. He said there are only three counties in the State who don't have this and they are Cloud, Mitchell and Republic Counties. Emerson said they don't really have a problem with this at the landfill. Once in a while someone will bring out same paint cans but they don't have many people bring fertilizer or paint spray cans. He said if Murdock comes up with something in his grant writing they could store what they do get on open shelves but they would have to seal it up before transporting it unless it was spread out on cardboard and let dry out. He doesn't know what the hospital does with their solid waste.

Two Neighborhood Revitalization Applications were approved. One for Dr. Kris Kimple for a 40 x 45 x 12 foot building at 284 D. Road, Beloit for $30,271. The second was for Farmway Coop Inc. for a new office building in Glen Elder for $308,000.

Chairman Clausson announced a Fire Chief Meeting on Thursday Oct. 18, at 7 p.m. He also said there would be a Pawnee Mental Health meeting at the Port Library from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 18. After discussion the commissioners decided to move the County Department Head meeting to October 22. Since Commissioner Cooper will be gone for the October 29, there will not be a meeting that day unless something comes up that needs to be taken care of at that time.