Rep. Pike takes tour of bridges, commission discusses GIS mapping options
Nevada Daily Mail
The Vernon County Commissioners traveled around the county Tuesday morning with Missouri State Rep. Patricia Pike and Darin Hamelink, Missouri Department of Transportation area engineer, looking at state bridges in need of repairs or replacement.
They looked at four separate bridges along state roads that had received low scores when examined by MoDOT. Two of the bridges, located on Highway K east of Nevada and on Highway N east of Bronaugh, received scores of just three out of nine in relation to the surface of the bridges decks.
to completely resurface one of those bridges could cost between $250,000 and $300,000 and would probably take less than two months. But with the limited funding the state has, Hamelink said some of those may not be done right away or may have limited work done first, such as making bridges one lane instead of two.
"We'll just have to weigh our options," said Hamelink, saying their last resort is to close the bridge, as has been done at six bridges in the state.
Hamelink said MoDOT has had to prioritize their road repairs due to their limited funding, focusing on the approximately 8,000 miles of Interstate while the 28,000 miles of secondary roads receive funding after that.
"We're hoping our funding situation gets resolved," Hamelink said, adding that Pike has been working on the legislature that would help.
A portion of the funding comes through a fuel tax, which Hamelink said has not been adjusted for about 20 years and is not sufficient when inflation is considered. Recent efforts to increase the rates have been bogged down in legislature.
Pike and the commissioners also discussed what improvements might be made to county roads to reduce the clouds of dust raised each time someone drives on it, limiting visibility and potentially making conditions dangerous.
The commission also further discussed the options they have for getting the parcel layer of the county's geographic information system compliant with the State Tax Commission's requirements, most recently brought up in a meeting June 3.
The parcel layer portion of the GIS mapping program, which GIS director Tim Bourassa has worked on in recent years, has been out of compliance for approximately seven years. The Tax Commission sent a new memorandum to the commission stating they would not give the county the more than $63,000 in reimbursements for the 2015 and 2016 fiscal years unless they take steps to complete the project.
Originally the Tax Commission was going to require the county to request bids for an outside company that would come in and complete the project, at potentially a higher rate than it would cost the county to complete the work Bourassa had already started. Through further discussions with the STC, Vernon County Assessor Cherie Roberts said they could still get that reimbursement and complete it in-house if they agree to give monthly updates to the Tax Commission and complete the project by June 1, 2016.
Bourassa said he believes he could complete the project by even the end of this year if he was able to focus all his attention on that project, but said he may not be able to do that because of his other responsibilities.
"Had things not come up, I would have had it done March of this year," Bourassa said, adding he is not sure other, new employees are ready to take on his other responsibilities at this point.
With those employees still not completely trained and the potential of other situations arising, such as the current installation of a new server, the commissioners expressed concern that the project could be completed without outside help and that they would find themselves in the same situation come 2016.
The commissioners, without southern commissioner Neal Gerster who had an appointment, decided to discuss the new option as well as the possibility of requesting bids in an effort to find an outside individual who could help Bourassa finish the project, giving the director the freedom to continue training new employees and work on other projects that may come up.
The Tax Commission requires a decision by Thursday.