McPHERSON COUNTY, Kan. — McPherson County is commissioning the design of an official county seal that will be displayed at the McPherson County Building at Maple and Marlin when it opens early next year. The County Commission Monday approved a scope of work agreement with BowerComm, carrying a $3,500 budget.
The seal is envisioned as an art piece that conveys the county’s identity and values while avoiding the pitfalls of being overly cluttered, cartoonish or confused with a logo. This seal could at some future time become widely adopted across county communications. Concept sketches are expected to be available within three weeks with the final design approval by Nov. 15 to align with building construction.
A temporary zoning permit was approved for a haunted forest event that will start this weekend and be held next weekend, and the weekends of Oct. 24-25 and Oct. 31-Nov. 1. Cord and Tammy Nestor will be operating the haunted forest on their property on US 56 about a mile and a half west of Galva.
Planning and zoning administrator Jon Kinsey said September zoning permits had a valuation value of $2.6 million, much of which is related to chicken barn projects.
He also discussed with commissioners a case where a garage was built in 2017 without the required permitting. This garage has been on the tax rolls, but since a permit was not obtained the owner of the property will be subject to a one thousand dollar fine. This issue came up in the process of an impending sale of the property.
The original plan to place a low water crossing on a township road near Roxbury has been dropped. Public Works project engineer Elizabeth Hopp said after spending over a week trying to dewater the site, they could not do their original plan. Due to existing flow, they have pivoted to a plan to place pipes at that location instead.
Commissioners approved a $10,260 quote from Frank Black Pipe and Supply. Once installed, the structure will be turned over to the township and as such it will be taken off the county’s off system bridge list, which would allow the county to get a credit on a future bridge project.
Commissioners also awarded a $974,000 contract ($974,274.20) to L&M Builders of Great Bend to replace a bridge on Comanche Road just west of 10th Avenue near Groveland. They had the lowest of three bids received, all of which were below a just over $1.28 million engineer’s estimate.
In his report Sheriff Jerry Montagne reported a jail census as of Monday Morning of 43, including nine females and five being held for municipal courts and 13 arrests last week.
Commissioners approved the hiring of a new employee in the finance office to eventually replace one who is leaving at the end of the year. Commissioners also approved hiring of a new employee and end of introductory raise for another in the Register of Deeds office.
