County Board Approves MFT Aggregate Bids
By Alex Haglund
County Engineer and Highway Department head Mitch Burdick presented Motor Fuel Tax (MFT) bids for aggregate (non-oil road repair and building materials) to the county board at their February meeting, held on the evening of Tuesday, February 9 at the Nashville Community Center.
The board voted to approve the bids, which were broken down by the townships and road districts. The bids included:
• CA/CM 13 to Beaucoup Road District, 1,300 tons, with a bid of $22,880 from Beelman Truck of East St. Louis (all following bids were also won by Beelman, with one exception which will be noted).
• CA/CM 16 to Bolo Road District, 800 tons, $9,720
• CA/CM 16 to the Covington Road District, 300 tons, $3,750
• CA/CM 05 to the Covington Road District, 400 tons, $4,920
• CA/CM 07 to the Covington Road District, 400 tons, $5,280
• CA/CM 13 to the Dubois Road District, 400 tons, $7,240
• CA/CM 13 to the Plum Hill Road District, 550 tons, $9,542
• CA/CM 16 to the Johannisburg Road District, 500 tons, $10,075
• CA/CM 16 to the Lively Grove Road District, 1,500 tons, $30,225
• CA/CM 13 to the Pilot Knob Road District, 500 tons, $10,675
• CA/CM 06 to Washington County (Hoyleton Road District Stockpile), 350 tons, $3,675, with the bid going to Obermeier Trucking of Okawville.
• CA/CM 13 to Washington County (Oakdale Stockpile), 400 tons, $7,040
• CA/CM 13 to Washington County (Posen Stockpile), 2,350 tons, $41,360
• CA/CM 16 to Washington County (Nashville Stockpile), 250 tons, $3,037
• CA/CM 06 to Washington County (Nashville Stockpile), 250 tons, $3,000
In total, the bids add up to $172,339. The county bids for oil and asphalt separately from their aggregate bids and will be seeking bids on those items at the end of March. Finally, while the county board did approve the bids, the Illinois Department of Transportation must grant the final approval. This is however, basically a formality.
On a different subject, Burdick told the board that due to the mild winter (at least the first part of it), both the county’s salt supply and his department’s snow removal budget were, “in good shape.”
“Even if we do have a difficult end of the winter,” Burdick told the board, “I think we’ll be in good shape.”
Burdick also told the board that his department’s request for funding to help do repair work on County Highway 27 (he spoke to the board about this at the January meeting) was declined by the State of Illinois.
Judge Emge
Judge of the 20th Judicial Circuit and Washington County resident judge Dan Emge spoke to the county board. Emge followed Sheriff Bradac in speaking with the board (see page A1) and some of the same issues came up.
“We’re talking about the heroin problem,” said board member Willy Spenner, “do we have a lot of cases?”
“What did we have today Heath,” Emge asked Washington County State’s Attorney Heath Hooks, who was present at the meeting, “six, seven?”
“The thing about heroin,” Emge told the board, “it’s so deadly. Marijuana, methamphetamine, you can use it a long time before it begins to affect your health. Heroin, it can be one time and you’re done.”
Emge also spoke about issues he and other office holders had with the Washington County Judicial Center, though not to the extent that he did when he spoke to the board last year.
“The big courtroom was 85-degrees the other day,” Emge said, but stated that they had gotten it mostly cooled by the time court began to be in session.
When asked about the windows, a major issue from when Emge spoke to the board last, he admitted they were still a big problem but said, “I don’t know what we could do.” Emge said that with the architect responsible for the project, Image Architects of Carbondale, out of business, the county basically has no recourse left to get contractors to fix the windows and other issues at the Judicial Center.
Building Committee
With the Washington County Courthouse’s renovation nearly complete, the board approved reducing the retaining of funds for the project by the county from 10-percent to five-percent, at the request of the general contractor.
“That will still leave some $160-some-thousand,” building committee chair Gary Suedmeyer told the board.
The board also approved a few last-minute change orders. Approved were a customer use counter for the treasurer’s office at $2,115, and a traction tread for the stairway measuring three-feet by 12-inches at $2,969.60. There was also a motion to approve the addition of wood frames for all of the signs for offices – $38 each or $2,115 for all the signs in the building. The motion was not approved.
