Henry County Courthouse repairs to cost county $12,180

By STEPH TAHTINEN

Mt. Pleasant News

Henry County will be paying $12,180 to lower the drains on the courthouse roof.

?The drains are all sitting in the highest places possible, so obviously we have water on the roof,? said Derek Wellington of the auditor?s office told the board of supervisors during their Tuesday morning meeting.

Wellington said that the roof has rubber patches, which are all in spots where water builds up. As a result, the patches are starting to peel up.

?It?s not going to heal itself. It needs to be done,? said Supervisor Chairman Kent White. ?The drains aren?t going to shrink up and go to the lowest point.?

Wellington had gotten quotes to repair the roof from Forever Dry Roofing of Ainsworth to put in the new drains for $5,752 and Jason Smith Plumbing to do the plumbing for $6,428. There will be a total of eight drains installed, two per side of the building, in the lowest points possible, said Wellington.

As the total cost of the project, $12,180, is below the threshold to take bids, the supervisors were able to approve the project Tuesday morning.

Wellington also received a quote to repair the roof on the building on the corner of Madison and Jackson streets that houses the Central Point of Coordination and Veterans Affairs offices, which has also had water issues. However, as this was not included on Tuesday?s agenda, it will be discussed at the Thursday board of supervisors meeting.

In other business, the board of supervisors also discussed a correction to the solid waste contract due to a change in wording between the request for proposals (RFP) and the final contract.

?There is a discrepancy between the two, and we wish to make a correction to the signed contract,? summarized Kent White.

Last week, it was brought before the supervisors that there was a difference in wording between the county?s request for proposals and the contract signed by Mike Prottsman Sanitation earlier this year. The RFP had stated the cost should be given ?including? additional fees, whereas the contract reads ?plus? additional fees.

Last week, County Attorney Darin Stater suggested that the contract be changed to the word ?including.?

?I just want to make sure that the contract reflects what was on the RFP,? said Stater reiterated Tuesday morning. ?It needs to match the RFP.?

However, Jim Becker, acting as attorney for Prottsman, suggested that wasn?t enough quite enough and provided the county with a proposed reform payment paragraph that matched the wording listed in the RFP.

?This clarification would satisfy me,? commented Stater after reviewing Becker?s paragraph.

The reformed paragraph will be put into the contract, replacing the previous paragraph concerning payment.

The reformed contract will be on the supervisors? agenda for approval on Thursday.

The supervisors also heard a weekly update from County Engineer Bill Belzer, who updated the supervisors on the secondary roads department?s activities.

Belzer also informed the supervisors that the state has approached the county about a potential plowing agreement where the county would plow the north-south section of Highway 78 in Olds and the state would plow 114th Street. However, Belzer said he is waiting to hear from the state regarding details.

During the public comments portion of the meeting, New London resident Ron Osborne asked for a copy of a letter from Lyn Whaley of WEMIGA Waste that the supervisors had received on May 10 of this year.

Osborne also asked for copies of any documents the county had concerning the potential sealcoating of Jewel Avenue, from its intersection with Grand Avenue to the Big Creek bridge.

White explained that everything has been verbal so far and no decisions have been made yet.