Raises given; bids open

By GREG SCELLIN
Signal Editor

The Fillmore County Board of Supervisors met for the entire day at its second regularly-scheduled meeting in June. The majority of the meeting was spent on employee evaluations and bids on upcoming Fillmore County Department of Roads projects.
The supervisors evaluated the custodians, noxious weed superintendent and emergency manager in a timely manner. The county board met with Fillmore County Senior Services director Brenda Motis in executive session for 32 minutes. The supervisors met with Fillmore County Highway Superintendent Pat Halbur in executive session for one hour and 23 minutes.
In open session, the supervisors voted 6-0 (Supervisor Larry Cerny—absent) to approve the board’s Salary Committee recommendation of a three percent wage increase for each department’s total hourly payroll allocated individually by each department head’s discretion. This year’s Salary Committee were Cerny, Mark Lightwine and Merle Noel.
Roads Department bid openings included:
• Concrete box letting in Franklin Township. The apparent low bidder was Reece Construction Co., Inc., of Salina, Kan., with a bid of $315,037.96. Van Kirk Bros. Contracting of Sutton submitted a bid of $320,646.70. The county engineering firm of Speece Lewis Engineers stated they have no experience with Reece Construction and could not verify their work.
Supervisor Kenny Harre made a motion to award the bid to Van Kirk.
“We know their work, and with this difference, I would like to go with them,” Harre said.
The supervisors voted 5-2 (Supervisors Wade Sluka and Noel—no) to award the bid to Van Kirk.
• The supervisors approved (7-0) a bid of $82,224.60 for 2.6 miles of sealed armor coat work from TopKote, Inc. This project will be a cost-share with the Village of Shickley.