The Guthrie County Board of Supervisors met yesterday for the first of their two sessions this week.
Guthrie County Conservation Board Director Joe Hanner provided the Board with an update from his department after their own meeting Monday evening. The Conservation Board has agreed unanimously to apply for the state recreational trails grant that Hanner discussed with Supervisors last week.
After speaking again with contractor Snyder & Associates, Hanner estimates that to pave the 14 bike trail crossings in Guthrie County it would cost approximately $106,000. He will be applying for that large of a grant through the state, of which his department will be responsible for 25% of payment.
Hanner says the Conservation Board feels now is the time to pursue the paving opportunity because Dallas County is finishing its crossings this year and Greene County is about to start paving theirs.
Chris Whitaker of the Region XII Council of Governments will be brought in to help Guthrie County Conservation with its grant application, which is due by July 1st. Hanner says he doesn’t expect to hear anything from the state for at least a couple of months after that application has been submitted.
County Engineer Josh Sebern spoke next during the Supervisors meeting. The Board unanimously approved awarding a microsurfacing contract to Sta-Bilt Construction out of Harlan for $327,000. Sta-Bilt will be working on a pavement preservation project on White Pole Road that will start at Highway 25 and move east to the Dallas County line.
That road project is scheduled to begin August 11th and Sta-Bilt has 25 working days to complete it.
Sebern says one lane will be worked on at a time during the pavement project and a pilot car will be used to direct traffic.
The Supervisors then approved two longevity pay increases for a couple of Secondary Roads Department workers. Armond Harris and Randy Clipperton each received $.04 raises.
To end the meeting, the Supervisors canvassed the votes from last week’s primary election. All races stand as they were unofficially announced last week. At the local level, Supervisors Tom Rutledge and Clifford Carney both received the official nomination from their Republican party in advance of November’s general election.