Chase County road crews struggling to stay ahead of snow

The hits keep coming for Chase County road crews.
Even before more snow fell last week, some county residents were still digging out from December and January storms.
Amy Gittlein and Julie Spickelmier attended the March 28 open forum of the commissioners to ask Commissioners Jacci Brown, Duane Dinnel and Kurt Bernhardt for road help in the northeast corner of the county where they said poor road conditions have left mail routes affected for months.
The Wauneta shop has had two graders broken down. While one is now back in service, the county is playing catch up.
Gittlein and Spickelmier  said run off from snow has washed out recent road repairs.
The county has another grader on the way, but don’t expect it for another month. Until then, the other shops will send a grader to help out the area and the commissioners will check with John Deere and Cat about getting another grader to help out.
The commissioners and Highway Superintendent Toney Krajewski went on to discuss upcoming road projects and how the county can use those projects as training for its grader operators.
With plans to bring in Greg Jantz to oversee the projects, Krajewski is hopeful Jantz can show the county’s employees some tricks of the trade.
The board and Krajewski went on to review the county’s one and six year road plans. The six-year plan includes more work on Old Highway 6 to ensure its use for years to come, as well as work on the millings on Ave. 331.
Krajewski told the commissioners to keep their eyes on LB 645 which could refigure the formula for distribution of road fund allocations from the state.
Once they moved on from roads, the commissioners set the new rate for Chase County ambulance runs.
The group bumped the rate up to $950 plus $26 per loaded mile per run. That’s up from the previous rates of $606.31 plus $10.11 per run and comes on the heels of last meeting’s increase in the pay to EMS crews.
In other business, the commissioners discussed changes to the county handbook, including comp time and road employees’ summer hour schedule.
With a Chase County Hospital Board member’s term coming up, the commissioners talked about how they want to handle board appointments. The commissioners were clear that they want to evaluate each reappointment and open any reappointment for public interest.
The next commissioners’ meeting will be April 11.