Commission wants to implement day-by-day system

By ADAM STEWART

Staff writer

Marion County Commission voted Tuesday to extend a countywide burn ban until Monday. The ban was set to expire Tuesday.

Commissioners discussed a system to determine whether a ban should be in place on a daily basis, but waited to make a decision until all three commissioners were present. Bob Hein was not at the meeting.

Emergency Management and Communications Director Michele Abbott-Becker said the dispatch office receives information on fire danger three times daily from the National Weather Service.

Dispatch could include information about a burn ban on the county’s toll-free road and weather line. The phone number is 866-786-7625.

“We have to find a way to be more reactive,” Commission Chairman Dan Holub said. “This ‘one-week-at-a-time’ stuff won’t work.”

Fire danger was extreme Tuesday, and was forecast to remain high the rest of the week, Abbott-Becker said.

In other business:

• Holub said he wants to start working on the 2010 budget as soon as possible to have more time to find line items that can be cut or reduced.
• Transfer Station Director Rollin Schmidt said he had drafted a recycling plan but wanted to wait to present it to the full commission.
• Health insurance was renewed with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas for one year. Tim Oglesby of the insurer said rates went down about 0.9 percent. One or two big claims can dramatically affect rates for a small group, he said.
• Cardie Oil of Tampa won a bid for transport fuel. The company bid $6,300 for 4,000 gallons of diesel in one tank, $1,318 for 1,000 gallons in another, and $4,497 for 3,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline in a third tank, for a total of $12,115. Cooperative Grain and Supply of Hillsboro also bid. The company bid $6,312 for the 4,000-gallon tank, $1,325 for the 1,000-gallon tank, and $4,527 for the unleaded, for a total bid of $12,164.
• Commissioners approved a contract with Swindoll, Janzen, Hawk, & Loyd of McPherson for a single audit of $7,500.
• Konica-Minolta of Wichita was awarded a bid for a black and white copier for the road and bridge department. The company bid $4,592 for the machine and $180 for annual maintenance. Key Office of Salina bid $4,983 for the machine and $249 for maintenance. Road and Bridge Superintendent John Summerville said the county encumbered $10,000 for a copier.
• Commission went into a closed session for 10 minutes with County Appraiser Cindy Magill for personnel matters. No action was taken on return to open session.
• The next commission meeting will be at 9 a.m. Monday.