Marshall County Highway Superintendent Jason Peters told the County Commissioners he received notification from the Army Corp. of Engineers concerning the mitigation site for the 13th Road bridge project. Peters said the Corp. is basically telling us everything is good and we can take back ownership with a deed.
County Attorney Jim Clevenger said, “If we do this Conservation Easement and promise that the area will always be a wetland mitigation site the Army Corp. will let us removed it from their oversight.” He said he needed a legal description of the area to add to the agreement and Peters said he would get the information and the commissioner could sign it at the March 4th meeting.
The Highway Superintendent also discussed the purchase of a new distributor and chipper box for the chip and seal process. The new equipment will be financed by Republican First National with payments coming out of the Cumulative Capital Fund. He presented a 5 year and 7 year agreement. The 5-year plan calls for an annual payment of $119,718.34 and the 7-year term is $88,612.78. He asked the commissioners which payment term they wanted to accept.
County Commissioner Kevin Overmyer said the Cum Cap fund currently has approximately $300,000 in it. He did comment that Michael Marshal, the County IT Director pay for all the software maintenance out of the Cum Cap fund and they are paying for the 5 new dump trucks at the highway department from the same fund.
Commissioners Mike Delp said he would like to pay less interest if possible and purchase the equipment on the 5-year plan. He also said it would be best to “crunch the numbers” before making a final decision.
Peters said the current interest rates are 3.45% on the 5-year and 3.53% on the 7-year. He noted that interest rates are subject to change.
The County Auditor will look at the financials and make a recommendation to the commissioners at their March 4th meeting.
