By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Keeping people safe and at no cost to Barton County taxpayers. At the first Barton County Commission meeting in April, County Engineer Barry McManaman got approval from the board to move forward with the Kansas Department of Transportation's High-Risk Rural Roads Project which includes an analysis of no-passing zones and signing improvements on county roads. Tuesday morning, he received approval from the commission to hire Ellsworth-based Kirkham Michael for the design work.
"The project, as you will recall, is to analyze no-passing zones and install the no-passing pennants on approximately 77 miles of county blacktop, primarily in the southwest part of the county," McManaman said.
The commission and KDOT approved the design work at $34,272.86, which will eventually be paid for by state dollars.
"Barton County will need to front the money to pay Kirkham Michael as the design work is being done, but it is a reimbursement project so we will be reimbursed for 100 percent of the design costs," said McManaman.
The southwest corner of the county was selected because of scheduled maintenance in that quadrant in 2025. McManaman has already applied for a similar grant for the southeast part of the county for a future project.