![[mccookgazette.com]](http://www.mccookgazette.com/images/nameplate31.png)
RSS
Print
Email link
Respond to editor
Post comment
Share link
Facebook
Twitter
del.icio.us
Digg
StumbleUpon
Technorati
Newsvine
Reddit
Google
 Gary Dicenta, left, Red Willow County's roads supervisor, and county commissioner Leigh Hoyt of rural McCook examine plans to improve a railroad crossing southeast of McCook. Changes at the crossing include moving the center line of the existing county road and flattening the approach. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette) [Click to enlarge] |
Plans to improve the safety of the railroad crossing on Road 392/Drive 717 southeast of the Southwest High School include shifting the center line of the county road 10 feet to the northeast and flattening the approaches on the north and south sides of the tracks.
Gary Dicenta, Red Willow County's roads superintendent, told county commissioners Monday morning that Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad asked that the county road hit the tracks at or as close to a 90-degree angle as possible. BNSF also requested that each approach to the tracks be flattened as much as possible, meaning that buses and the truck of an approaching and/or waiting truck-trailer rig will not be on an incline at the tracks.
Dicenta said the plans call for the flattened area on each side of the tracks to be 70 feet from the center line of the tracks, or 60 feet north and south of cross-arms.
The corner will retain its 15 mile-an-hour speed limit.
The new grading will not require acquiring any new right-of-way, Dicenta said, as it is on existing railroad and county right-of-way, not on anyone's private property.
Dicenta and commissioners also discussed ditches and drainage at the site -- the south side of the county road doesn't have a ditch near the crossing, and water drains from east to west on the north, rather than the preferred west to east.
Earl McNutt was appointed to his ninth year as commission chairman during the board's annual reorganization Monday.
Leigh Hoyt will continue as vice chairman.
Hoyt nominated fellow commissioner Steve Downer as chairman of the county's board of equalization. McNutt will serve as vice chairman.
Commissioners reappointed Miller and Associates of McCook as county roads supervisor.
Commissioners will represent the county on these boards and committees:
McNutt: Board of trustees of Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department Inc.; Jail Task Force, REWARD board of directors; and West Central Nebraska Development District Administrative Board (alternate).
Hoyt: Hillcrest Nursing Home board of directors, Veterans Services Committee, County Visitors Committee, Red Willow County Fair Board, County Health Board, City/County Cooperation Committee and Counties Cooperation Committee.
Downer: RC&D board of directors, executive committee of the board of directors of the McCook Economic Development Corp. CDBG Program Income Regional Administrative Board, Region II governing board and the West Central Nebraska Development District Administrative Board.
In an agreement with Hoyt, who has had problems attending a mid-afternoon meeting, McNutt agreed to attend (State of Nebraska Department of Corrections) Work Ethic Camp Community Involvement Committee meetings.
Commissioners designated these banks as depositories for 2009: Wells Fargo, McCook National Bank, AmFirst, Union Bank and Trust, First Central Bank, Adams Bank and Trust/Indianola, State Bank of Bartley and the Nebraska Public Agency Investment Trust.
In his first action as chairman of the county's board of equalization, Downer presided over the approval of applications/renewals of motor vehicle tax exemptions from: Good Samaritan Health Systems, two ambulances; Tehama Shrine, a van; First Assembly of God, a van; Southwest Area Training Service, buses, vans, cars, a trailer and a pickup; and the Ed Thomas YMCA, a bus.
County Treasurer Marleen Garcia told commissioners that each request met the criteria for charitable, religious or educational use.
Back in regular session, Garcia told commissioners that she will advertise delinquent real estate taxes in the Gazette on three consecutive Fridays.
This is the first step in the county's foreclosure process, she said.
Garcia said that most of the delinquent taxes will have been paid by the first week of March, when those remaining unpaid are offered in a delinquent tax certificate sale.
Dicenta asked commissioners if the county wants to participate in a program in which the state will pay for some road signage if the county provides the labor to put them up. The signs will all have to deal with curves -- chevrons, arrows, direction, speed. "Red Willow County needs lots of these signs," Dicenta said.
The state is requiring that counties have high-reflectivity road signs by 2010-11.
Commissioners agreed Monday to close out the federal-aid bridge project that constructed a new $441,000 bridge over the Driftwood Creek southwest of McCook, however, not without penalizing Simon Contracting of North Platte for going days over their contracted work days.
Dicenta said that Simon Contracting actually went five days over their projected work day schedule of 70 days, but commissioners compromised at three days, at $411 per day.
The project came in at an estimated $441,000, about $4,600 under its projected cost of $445,619.24.
The county has already paid the 20 percent of the estimated construction costs required of it in the federal-aid project. Dicenta said the Department of Roads will reimburse an overpayment or request more when costs of the bridge project are finalized.