McNutt re-elected commissioner chairman

McCook resident Earl McNutt will serve another year as chairman of the Red Willow County board of commissioners, reappointed to the position Monday morning by fellow commissioners Steve Downer of rural Bartley and Leigh Hoyt of rural McCook.

Hoyt was reappointed to serve as vice-chairman.

Commissioners reapp-ointed Miller & Associates Consulting Engineers P.C. of McCook to serve as the county's road superintendent. The company will be paid $7,500, all of which will be reimbursed by the State of Nebraska as an incentive to hire a licensed, certified road superintendent.

Gary Dicenta, the engineer with Miller & Associates who works as the county's roads superintendent and surveyor, said the fee reimbursed to counties with Class A superintendents has increased, in Red Willow County's case, from $3,200 to $7,500. In the past, he said, the county paid Miller & Associates $4,800 a year, paying the $1,600 above the reimbursement with county funds.

Dicenta said this was the first time in about 20 years that the state has increased its incentive to encourage counties to hire certified superintendents.

Commissioners signed documentation Monday morning indicating that Red Willow County had a Class A superintendent in 2005, and will receive its reimbursement in February or March.

Commissioners and Dicenta decided to wait a couple of months -- to see how winter weather affects the condition of armor-coated county roads -- before deciding what roads to work on this summer.

Dicenta told commissioners he is still working with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission to declare the Cambridge lake road as a state recreation road, which would mean the state would be responsible for at least a portion of the road's repair and maintenance. Chairman McNutt said, however, he wants to work the road into the county's regular maintenance schedule. "Chances are, it'll stay a county road forever," he said.

The county repairs and/or updates 12 to 15 miles of armor coating each year.

Commissioners reviewed the sufficiency rating of each of the county's bridges, wondering out loud if smaller bridges could be replaced with tubes. Dicenta said traffic counts determine whether a bridge can be replaced by a tube, explaining that the state recommends that a tube be sized to handle a 25-year rainfall. Dicenta said he worries about a county's liability if a too-small tube results in road damages that lead to an accident.

Commissioners agreed to create a new, in-depth record-keeping system to help Miller & Associates and the county keep track of service and repair histories and cost-of-operation for county road equipment. An existing reporting system isn't de-tailed enough to indicate the cost of operating each piece of equipment, Dicenta told commissioners, nor of keeping track of regular maintenance.

Dicenta said he would like a new system in place by July 1, for the new fiscal year.