Counties hope joint bidding will reduce bridge costs

McCOOK, Neb. — Officials in Red Willow and Frontier counties hope that, by bidding together on the purchase of materials for two bridge projects, they’ll get a break on the cost.

At their weekly meeting Monday morning, Red Willow County commissioners and Gary Dicenta, the county’s roads superintendent, discussed Red Willow County’s and Frontier County ‘s approval for 55 percent match funding from the Nebraska Department of Transportation’s 2018 bridge match program. Red Willow won funding to replace a bridge northwest of Danbury with twin metal culverts; Frontier County won funding for replacement of a bridge northeast of Stockville with culverts pipes (and also for the replacement of a bridge southwest of Eustis with a concrete box culvert).

When engineering plans for the Danbury and Stockville projects are completed, Dicenta said, the county’s engineers can develop a materials list. Competitive bids are required for any project estimated to more than $20,000. “Both counties had thought that by bidding together, we’d get a break on cost,” he said.

Plans and hydraulic studies will be submitted to the Department ofTransportation before construction can begin, Dicenta said.

The bridge northwest of Danbury over the Beaver Creek has a concrete deck over a wooden structure with a broken stringer. The whole structure will be replaced with twin 8 1/2x40-foot corrugated metal pipes with steel headwalls. The tubes will be placed five feet apart, which means the structure won’t be considered a bridge and can be removed from the county’s bridge inventory.

Red Willow County road crews will provide the labor for the Danbury project.

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Commissioners will offer a McCook funeral home $1,200 for the funeral services of a McCook resident. The deceased was divorced and died with minor children as immediate survivors, and no other family members able to pay funeral costs and claim the cremains, county attorney Paul Wood told commissioners.

Wood said he studied state statutes regarding the offering of the body/remains of a deceased indigent person to medical study facilities and the seizure of the assets of a deceased person, and whether he/she is a veteran eligible for veterans burial benefits. Wood said that under the circumstances in this particular situation, the law obligates the county to pay for burial/cremation.

After investigating options for the handling of the person’s cremains and for the payment of funeral costs, Wood told commissioners Monday that he recommends they table the $3,625 claim from the funeral home and offer to pay the county’s fee of $1,200 for a pauper burial.

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Tobin Buchanan, of First National Capital Markets, told commissioners that the 5-year call for the 2013 bonds for the county’s jail is in June. Showing commissioners a re-funding summary, Buchanan said there are no savings in refinancing the bonds at this time.

Re-funding now would not yield savings, but an ultimate loss of $12,037 from 2018 through 2032, Buchanan said.

Commission chairman Earl McNutt said that by refinancing a $2.3 million Hillcrest Nursing Home bond in late 2016, through First National Capital Markets, the county’s taxpayers would save about $234,900 in interest over the bond’s remaining (then) 15 years. McNutt said the county will keep an eye on the jail bond, watching for similar savings opportunities with jail financing.

In other actions, commissioners:

* Signed a subgrant agreement with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services for child support enforcement services. Assistant county attorney Phil Lyons said the agreement explains a change that DHHS will no longer reimburse the county for the collection of medical expenses for the custodial parent.

* Approved tax roll corrections, a motor vehicle tax exemption application for vehicles owned by Hillcrest Nursing Home and a resolution for county treasurer Sue Wesch to publish delinquent real estate taxes.