Bourbon County accepts bid for track hoe

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- Bourbon County Commissioners decided Friday to accept a $122,675 bid from Victor L. Phillips for purchase of a 2009 Hyundai Crawler, Model R210 track hoe with 1,350 hours of usage for the public works department.

The original bid of $114,500 was increased by $8,175 to allow for the addition of a quick attach coupler for buckets for the machine. Financing will be handled by UMB Bank.

Public Works Director Marty Pearson said without the coupler it could take up to 30 to 40 minutes to change buckets on the track hoe. He added that the track hoe has many uses, including digging culverts, replacing old bridges, cleaning out creek beds and breaking rocks at quarries. He said delivery of the track hoe is expected to take about a week.

Pearson also notified commissioners that signals on hand-held radios in his department have improved slightly from a 20-watt output last week to a 30-watt output with some "Band-Aid" work on the canisters that house them.

Pearson said last week that work was done on the canisters by an outside contractor last summer to alleviate overheating. The holes that were meant to vent the canisters apparently allowed too much moisture in, causing rust.

Pearson suggested that if commissioners decided to purchase new repeaters, it might be wise to team with the city of Fort Scott to procure a better price from vendors. Pearson estimated the repeaters would cost the county $12,000-$14,000 each. Commissioner Allen Warren commented that the canisters were not in the county budget.

Warren said the county has interviewed six "good" candidates for Bourbon County emergency manager, but gave no timeline for hiring someone for the position.

Though there will be no county commission meeting on Monday due to observance of Veterans Day, commissioners will be on hand for a 9 a.m. canvassing of votes from Tuesday's general election. Bourbon County Clerk Kendell Mason said preliminary numbers indicate about a 50 percent turnout of registered voters, with more than 6,000 people casting ballots.