By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Barton County is changing the way it handles the installation of culverts and entrances. At Wednesday's commission meeting, the governing body voted 5-0 to rescind a county resolution originally adopted in August 2003, and update it with a new resolution that reflects current state statutes.
County Director of Operations Matt Patzner explained the change that could make the installation of culverts now an expense of property owners instead of the county.
"Essentially, if it's a new ditch or an existing entrance did not exist before, that would be the county's expense," he said. "If it's at the homeowner or landowner's convenience, that would be the landowner's expense."
Commissioner Kirby Krier said with dirt, rock, manpower, and labor, it is not unusual for the county to pay between $7,000 and $10,000 to install a culvert. The new resolution could save the county upwards of $100,000 a year, but only after some existing projects are completed.
"We have nine entities that have requested culverts from April to October of last year," Krier said. "We're going to honor those because we made a commitment before. Those will be finished, and once those are finished, any new things that are requested will go by this resolution."
The new resolution also matched the definition of 'culvert' to that of the state definition, which is "any waterway structure not defined as a bridge."