By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
In a pair of meetings earlier this year, the Barton County Commission approved purchases for the Road and Bridge Department. Tuesday morning, the board heard from Road and Bridge Interim Director Chris Schartz with an update on those expenditures. The first dates all the way back to the winter when the county approved a cold mix asphalt contract.
"On March 5, it was approved to purchase the cold mix from Venture Corporation at $9.60 per ton," Schartz said. "The final accounting of that would have been around $192,000. We got a bill from Venture and they actually made 20,432 tons, which would be an overage of $4,174.20."
The original contract called for 20,000 tons. Schartz said the county will utilize the additional 432 tons and he understands it can be difficult to create exactly 20,000 tons of the mix.
In August, the commission approved the purchase of a 2024 2500 Tradesman Crew Cab 4x4 pickup from Marmie Motors for $46,784 for the Noxious Weed Department. Tuesday, the board approved an additional $5,300 to add a bed to the truck. Sunflower Trailer Sales was awarded the contract after submitting the low bid.