Cape Girardeau County highway administrator asks for budget adjustment

Cape Girardeau County commissioners approved two motions to make adjustments to the 2011 budgets for the highway department and the parks department at their Thursday meeting. Both adjustments stem from an excavator accident last fall.

Highway administrator Scott Bechtold said the bill for the repair on the machine arrived in his office Dec. 28, which was too late to process and pay in 2010. Because the bill will be paid in 2011 and is more than $52,000, he wanted to officially add the repair and the money to cover it to this year's budget so it would not skew any of the numbers.

The parks department had relied on the excavator to make repairs to the lake at Cape Girardeau County Park North, but because it was out of service, the repairs have been postponed until this year. Bruce Watkins, parks superintendent, asked commissioners to move the $27,000 to cover the repairs to the 2011 budget.

There will be a public hearing Monday morning to discuss the final 2011 budget.

In other business:

• Copy machine service agreements for the circuit clerk's office and the archive department were renewed.
• Commissioners opened two bids for per-tire replacement cost to be used for the county's fleet of vehicles and equipment. Bids from Raben Tire Co. and Purcell Tire & Rubber Co. have been referred to Bechtold for review and recommendation.
• Requests to advertise for bids for roof replacement on the Jackson courthouse and caulking and painting at the county administrative building were approved.
• A request to transfer the end of the year balance of $310,000 from Prop 1 to the highway department's hard- surfacing budget for 2011 was approved.

cbartholomew@semissourian.com

243-8600

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