Big Spending on the Horizon
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Thursday's meeting of the Perry County Board of Commissioners addressed two necessary and vital problems the county has been discussing: the repair of the Perry County jail roof and the increase of road maintenance materials.
An architect brought in by Sheriff Keith Kellerman presented to the board a small history of the jail to the board and the proposed solutions with their prices.
The root of the problem stems from fire retardant wood trusses used in the roof's building design for it's construction in 1985. At the time it those in charge of construction thought it to be a wise decision. However, soon after the company that had distributed the wood said there had been a miscalculation in the formula used to treat the wood, and by 1990 they had begun to degrade. Trusses on the east side of the roof could be grabbed and crushed with a hand, while those on the west side remained in stable condition.
Various repairs have been made to the roof through the years, but in 2007 the trusses began to flat out fall apart. Today, the ceiling on the east side sags and the architect was unsure of how many more repairs could be done to help the problem before it could pose a serious threat.
But why only the trusses on the east side? The architect described that it was most likely humidity. On the west side the roof has a layer of concrete between the holding area and the trusses, while the east side does not have a concrete barrier and houses parts such as cooking and laundry.
The estimated cost for the fixing the east side of the roof was $300,000, not including the cost of temporary housing or any moving costs. To rebuild the entire roof would cost the county nearly a million dollars.
Luckily, the firm plans to use steel trusses in place of the wood ones to meet both fire standards and alleviate the deterioration problem.
The board agreed to discuss it further at the next meeting, June 4, and to take action on it as soon as possible.
County Engineer Doug Bishop brought forward his own set of troubles to the board.
Bids for road materials had been held off in hopes that the cost of road oil would go down, but after waiting for months with no change it was clear the bids needed to be placed.
Bishop prepared a statement making it clear that the higher prices of road materials combined with less revenue from the motor fuel tax would result in a significant reduction in the miles of road the County Highway and Unit Road District could maintain.
Based on his projections they would only be able to oil and chip 30 miles of road. If it were to be maintained at that rate, 150 miles would be done in 5 years, leaving 180 undone and the county unable to oil all the roads every five years.
This would lead many roads to return to gravel.
Bishop stated that he would oil and chip the most used roads by amount of traffic and work down from there until materials run out. He also said he would stick very strictly to this system.
Bishop's only suggestion was for people to contact their federal and state representatives, since himself and the commissioners are unable to do anything about the motor fuel tax collected statewide.
Other items covered on the agenda...
Authorized the submission of USDA Rural Development grant applications for a county storage area and two police squad cars. The grand would pay 55%, or $25,000, whichever is lower, for the storage area and 35%, or $12,000 per car, whichever is lower, for the squad cars. This grant has not yet been approved but Sheriff Kellerman said he was told that acceptance was probable.
Authorized a resolution setting a sale price and authorizing Chairman Bobby Kelly to execute a deed of conveyance for the sale of 9/10 of an acre of County property in the south portion of Pinckneyville to Mark Barr in the amount of $6,000.
Established a Revolving Loan Committee and appointed Treasurer Bill Taylor, Commissioner Jim Epplin and Jeff Ashauer to the committee.
Ratified the Chairman's appointments of William Whitman and Carol Folden to the County Ethics Committee.
Tabled the appointment of a trustee to the Tamaroa Community Fire Protection District.
Approved of a raffle license for Pyramid Golden Gobblers.
County Clerk Kevin Kern made a statement that communities should be making census awareness committees as time for the census count nears. Kern also stated that many jobs, though temporary, are available for next year as census numerators. Testing will take place in late summer.
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