By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Running a county is not cheap. Tuesday morning, the Barton County Commission approved a pair of bids totaling nearly $323,000 for maintenance of county roads. County Engineer Barry McManaman asked for approval for the 2024 highway striping project.
"When the Road and Bridge Department gets done doing their annual overlay work and chip-seal work in the summer months, we have a contractor come in and stripe the pavement markings," he said. "We advertised and again got only one bid. That was from Straight-Line Striping out of Grand Island, Neb."
The lone bid on the project came in at $130,892.75, and will involve approximately 95 miles of road in the northwest quadrant of the county north of K-96 Highway and west of US-281 Highway and Susank Road. Straight-Line has completed the work for several years, even after McManaman sought bids from other companies.
"One of the companies got back with and me and said, 'You're getting a good price. We can't beat that price,'" McManaman said. "We're really happy with Straight-Line Striping. They work with us well."
The commission also approved a cold mix asphalt contract for the Road and Bridge Department. The county will supply all aggregate and asphalt oil. Venture Corporation submitted the lone bid to mix the asphalt at $9.60 per ton. The board approved funds for up to 20,000 tons of material.