OSWEGO — Labette County Commissioner Tom Barrett is working with Great Plains Industrial Park staff and board to explore improving a county road on the south side of the park as an entrance to the park for employees who live south of it.
Saline Road would need to be improved and the park would have to have security in place to allow employees to enter the park from the south.
Sandy Krider, the Labette County public works director, told commissioners last week that upgrading and widening the road would cost just shy of $40,000. The road is about 14 to 16 feet wide and would have to be at least 20 feet wide.
Barrett said the width of the road never made much difference when the plant was using it in years past because employees would arrive and leave on it for the same shift with limited, if any, two way traffic. Barrett formerly served as security chief at the former Kansas Army Ammunition Plant.
He said Day and Zimmermann Inc. is getting closer to opening a second line at Great Plains so the extra entry gate will be helpful. He didn’t know if the second line would require a second shift or just more employees.
There was some discussion about establishing a gate there; Barrett said technology would make that effective and if a person had to be stationed there the shift would be about 15 minutes twice a day.
He said he would like an agreement with Great Plains before the county spent money. But getting that gate open would help Day and Zimmermann, which is the largest taxpayer at the park, Barrett said.
In other matters, commissioners: Met in closed session with Brad Reams, director of Great Plains, to discuss confidential financial information and trade secrets.
