Road Dept. decides on 4 10-hr. days

Kimball County Weed Department will be getting another pickup to spray weeds this coming season.

The County Commissioners opened one sealed bid for the purchase of one used 4x4 pickup for the weed department at their regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 20.

The only bid received, from Wolf Automotive, provided a used 2012 Chevy Silverado, automatic, three-quarter ton, extended cab, long box, gas pickup with 93,154 miles on it for the price of $15,749.

According to Rick Wangler, County Weed Superintendent, this is the best pickup he has looked at to date.

“It seems like a good truck, has new tires, and it drives nice,” he added.

The price tag was a little higher than what the board originally wanted to spend, but it seems to be a good, mechanically sound truck.

County Highway Superintendent Dave Hottell and the board revisited prior discussion from their last meeting, regarding the change of the work week from five 8-hour shifts to 4-10 hour shifts throughout the summer.

The thought of splitting up the crews to allow a number of employees available on Friday during the 4-10s schedule didn’t sit right with Hottell. It was agreed that, if need be, employees will be on-call for Fridays, as well as, after hours and weekends.

Following more discussion, the board and Hottell agreed that starting 4-10s on April 1 and running through November 1 is the best idea to reduce confusion about day light savings time and prevent dates from being switched around each year.

Concern remains about the public’s view on the road department not working on Fridays during the summer, however, it was decided to be in the county’s best interest for safety and cost effectiveness to work a 4-10s schedule.

“If we (the road department) start putting in a culvert one morning and have other roads shut down because of this, if we are working 10 hour days it is more likely that we will be done with that job on the same day and the roads won’t need to be closed overnight, helping with safety ,as well as, traffic control,” added Hottell.

Look for the change to begin on April 1 and last through Nov. 1 for the Kimball County Road Department.