Labette County agrees on loan package for new rock crusher

The county paid $500,000 down on the $1.2 million portable rock crusher made by a German company. The county will finance the remaining $699,900.

On Monday, the commission opened bids to finance the balance of the crusher’s cost.

The original thought was to finance the crusher over three, four or five years, depending on the terms. Sandy Krider, Public Works director, told commissioners Monday that three and four years were too short to pay off the balance of the crusher. Instead, she sought bids for four, five and six years of financing.

The bidders were Parsons Commercial Bank, Labette Bank, Great Southern Bank, Community National Bank and John Deere’s financing through Wells Fargo.

Commercial Bank offered a 5% interest rate on a 67-month note with annual payments of $157,857.93. Interest rates went up for the 79- and 91-month options.

Labette Bank offered a 4.69% interest rate on the 67-month note with annual payments of $156,656.64. Interest rates also climbed for the longer-term options.

Great Southern Bank offered 5.125% interest on the 67-month note with annual payments of $134,911.16. This option added a sixth payment.

Community National Bank offered a 6% interest rate on the 67-month note with annual payments of $138,688.98. This also added a sixth payment.

John Deere offered a 5.5% interest rate on all loan options with $164,537.88 paid annually on a five payment plan.

Krider said she wants to sell some county equipment on Purple Wave, an online auction site, and use the proceeds from that to make the first payment on the crusher loan. That will save money in the special machinery fund, which had a balance of over $1 million in recent months, for future crusher payments and other equipment purchases on terms. The county is working on an equipment replacement plan, rolling out older stock and replacing it with newer and using the special machinery fund to help pay loans or make purchases outright. So far, road graders, tractors with mowers, dump trucks and other equipment have been replaced on the rotating schedule.

After discussion and a desire to pay off the crusher within its five-year warranty period, commissioners opted for the lowest interest rate and the fewest number of payments. They agreed to use Labette Bank’s 67-month loan to finance the crusher. 

Labette County has generally kept equipment until it no longer had value or had very little value. The county purchased a rock crusher in 1959 and then replaced that with the Cedarapids crusher in 1995, paying 10% down on the $1.087 million crusher and financing the rest over 10 years. 

The county commission wants county employees to continue crushing rock as it is expensive to buy it on the open market or hire a company to crush rock for you.

The county needs about 150,000 tons of road rock annually to maintain 971 square miles of gravel roads. Some of these are highly traveled roads and require more maintenance than others. Last year, the Cedarapids crusher produced 57,930 tons of road rock and chips used for chipping and sealing hard-surface roads. 

Public Works schedules about 30 miles of roads a year for chipping and sealing, which requires about 6,000 tons of chips. In 2022, the county purchased 24,385.4 tons of road rock from Midwest Minerals at a cost of $177,863.68.

Local training should start soon on the new rock crusher, Krider told commissioners. 

She also wants to sell on Purple Wave the jaw from the Cedarapids crusher, the Genset generator and the impactor.

In other business, the commission:

— Heard a report from Mac Young, 11th Judicial District court administrator on the comprehensive plan and grant request to the Kansas Department of Corrections to fund the Southeast Kansas Community Corrections program in the 11th District, which includes Labette, Cherokee and Crawford counties. He said there are 347 people on community corrections in the 11th District supervised by seven community corrections officers. One of those works in Labette County with a caseload of 70 people. Crawford County has five community corrections officers and Cherokee County has one. He said he’s in the process of hiring a second officer for Labette County cases. Community corrections is seeking $945,336 from DOC to fund the program in 2024. In 2022, the 11th District’s program had a success rate of 76.3%, meaning that persons on this felony program completed their probation periods without being sent to prison. The stats don’t count probation revocations and reinstatements as failures. Only being revoked and sent to prison is considered a failure, Young told commissioners. He didn’t have statistics on recidivism rates and didn’t have Labette County-specific numbers for the program. The Sun requested those numbers from Young but didn’t receive them by deadline. He will return to the commission once he finds out what number KDOC approved for funding.

— Agreed to close Pratt Road north of 25000 Road from 6 to 10 a.m. May 27 for a Katy Days running event in Tolen Creek Park.

— Approved an agreement with Montgomery County to continue allowing the collection of household hazardous waste from Labette County homes at the county noxious weeds building and taking it to Montgomery County for disposal.

— Agreed to pay $14,200 to have windows recaulked at the county courthouse.

— Discussed again possibly purchasing the building at 1708 Corning that houses the Juvenile Justice Authority from Dr. Walter Murphy. Commissioners will check out or have inspected the roof and the air conditioning systems before making a decision.

— Met in closed session two times totaling 30 minutes to discuss non-elected personnel in the Labette County Attorney’s Office. No action followed.

— Met in closed session for 15 minutes to discuss attorney-client information relating to Great Plains Industrial Park. No action followed.