McCartney questions road shop flooding

Editor,

As I read the letter to the editor in the Aug. 14, 2008, edition of The Journal, I found it quite interesting that Commissioner James Engelkemier noted that the roads shop flooded.  Well number one there is not a road shop at that site.  And when I drove out to look at it during the rains I did not see where the road department’s office had any flood waters near it.  Yes, the very back part of that property near the creek does flood.  But this year’s rain was about the same as last year’s 4-inch rain when a couple of us went and walked down through the mud to where the flooded area was and it measured 200’ from the foundation with at least a 20-foot hill to climb.  Last year when I spoke to the roads superintendent he noted that the only items that would be in that area may be some inventory, which in my opinion, if a new shop had been built, could be stored at the old shop location.  

Yes, Mr. Engelkemier, the tree grinder may have needed to be moved, but it is located nowhere near the site of the foundation that was started for the roads shop. I am not saying this was the best location for the shop but the price for the land was good, and had the shop been completed it would not have been in jeopardy.  Believe me if water ever gets as high as the road department’s office we better all start building an ark.

The canceling of the contract with Prairie Construction was a breach of contact by the county as it was cancelled for no just cause.  In other words, the county board on a 3-2 vote (Nolte, Nielsen, and Engelkemier) just decided that they didn’t like the project that the previous board started and they wanted it stopped.  Then they tried to find fault with Prairie Construction.  In my opinion, after hearing the Cass County Attorney try to explain to the board at several of their regular board meetings that they could not find Prairie at fault for failure of the contract, when the contract was cancelled without giving Prairie notice of a problem or time to rectify the problem, that is when they decided to seek outside counsel.  

In my opinion, that is a slap in the face not only to our elected county attorney but to the residents of Cass County.  It was not illegal for them to hire outside council, but in my opinion they did so only because they didn’t get the answer they wanted from the county attorney.  Now the county has to pay for their decision.  My dad always told me if someone performs a service for you and you decided you want to stop the project, you still have to pay for work performed.

At the beginning of the 2007-08 budget year $688,000 had been set aside for the new road’s shop.  Now, nearly $330,000 of that has been spent on other county road improvement projects and there is only about $350,000 left to start the process all over again.  What a big waste of county tax dollars that was set aside for the new road's shop!  The $65,000 that must be paid to Prairie Construction plus the estimated $25,000 paid to Burns Law Firm will be more than the $87,000 that Prairie Construction had agreed they would accept for the work done up to the point that the board cancelled the project.  And just so the board knows, that $65,000 they have to pay to Prairie Construction, which included their attorney fees, cannot come out of the money that had been set aside for the building.  That money can only be spent on improvements.  I have already checked with the state auditor to make sure that the set-aside money could not be used, so the payment of the settlement will have to come out of the county general fund.

I feel that at some point as the county grows there is going to be a need for two full-size maintenance shops, one on the west and one on the east.  Right now the greater population and road maintenance is on the east, and it makes perfect sense to build the first shop here, especially since the current shop is not large enough and in rather bad condition.

I toured the Plattsmouth road shop myself last year and found the conditions, while somewhat orderly, in very bad shape.  The men work in standing water when it rains.  In fact, I contacted the Nebraska Workforce Development – Safety and Labor Standards, but because they have no funding they could not investigate, though they did keep all of my documents and pictures on file with their legal department.

Now Mr. Engelkemier thinks it is a good time to form a steering committee to determine what the roads department needs.  What have they been doing for the past year and a half when they cancelled the building of a shop that was very much needed?  Why would it have to wait until after the lawsuit was settled to start thinking about what is needed?  I hope at least when they form this steering committee they use the county’s road personnel.  Aren’t they the ones that know where the biggest amount of work is done and the conditions of their current facilities and what they need to get the job done?  It will be very interesting to see who makes up the committee and how long it will take to get something underway.  In the meantime, our roads personnel continue to do major maintenance in a very outdated shop and winter is just a few months away.

 I hope the voters who have the chance to put a new commissioner in office this year take a very close look at how well their commissioner is interested in really saving tax dollars and moving this county forward, instead of just canceling a project because it was made by someone they didn’t like.  As well as the fact that they don’t think the County Attorney needs to represent the county in county matters.  I thought that was up to the county voters when they elected Mr. Cox as the County Attorney.

Even if Mr. Nielsen is running unopposed there is always the power of a write-in candidate.  I believe when Mr. Nielsen announced he was running again, it was because a large vote at the recall election showed that his constituents supported him.  I guess if you only compare the votes cast to retain Mr. Nielsen to the total votes cast it did look good.  But when only 23 percent of the registered voters turned out for the recall election, that is not a strong showing.  Instead of 83percent in favor, only 19 percent of the registered voters voted to keep him in office.

The same is true for Mr. Nolte.  Only 30 percent of the registered voters voted in the recall election showing 66 percent in favor of keeping him in office.  When in reality only 20 percent of registered voters turned out to vote. So instead of 66 percent voting to keep him in office, it was really only 20 percent of the registered voters that kept him in office.  Don't think your vote doesn't count.