Cole County commissioners gave approval Tuesday to remove a bridge on Moniteau Creek Road.
Lehman Construction, of California, was the low bidder at $47,590, and the county will use half-cent capital improvement sales tax money for the work.
This will remove the bridge and roadway and there won’t be any replacement structure.
County Engineer Eric Landwehr said they plan to start work soon.
The Moniteau Creek Road bridge is one of six on Missouri Department of Transportation’s deficient list in Cole County. MoDOT determines whether a bridge is deficient based on biannual bridge inspections, Landwehr said. MoDOT inspects bridges in counties and cities that are more than 20 feet in length.
The other five Cole County bridges on MoDOT’s deficient list include:
• Old Forge Road Bridge off Old Bass Road, south of Brazito — The one-lane bridge over Clark Fork, built in 1930, was recently posted with an 18-ton load limit. Last month, commissioners approved using federal money to replace the bridge, with work expected to start this winter and be done by next spring.
• High Point Road over Gibler Creek — This bridge is scheduled for rehab or replacement through the MoDOT process, like the Old Forge Road bridge. Landwehr said the design will be started in the next month or two.
• Waterford Road over North Moreau Creek — Landwehr said the bridge is functionally obsolete due to the width of the deck, but overall it is in decent condition and will not be scheduled for rehab or replacement.
• Tanner Bridge Road over the Moreau River — This is a large bridge built in 1962. “It is fair condition, and we do routine maintenance work on it,” Landwehr said. “It is not load posted, and we plan to maintain it in a fair condition as long as feasible. Replacement costs would be in the $2 million range.”
• Hemstreet Road over North Moreau Creek — Landwehr said this bridge is in poor condition and load posted at 12 tons. He said it likely will be removed and not replaced due to reasonable access on both sides from Route C.
“The county has 95 bridge structures that are inspected by MoDOT every two years,” Landwehr said. “After the replacement and removal of the four structures, we’ll be down to only two on the deficient list.”
In other action Tuesday:
• Commissioners accepted the annual settlement report from Cole County Collector Larry Vincent, which showed the collector’s office took in nearly $93 million in taxes for the fiscal year ending Feb. 28.
Vincent’s office took in $11 million more than the prior year’s $82 million, mainly due to the Jefferson City Public School District levy increase. He said 97.5 percent of current taxes were collected, and the office has never gone below a 96 percent collection rate.
The majority of the money collected, $65.4 million, will go to public school districts around the county. The next largest portion, nearly $5.4 million, goes to cities in the county, followed by road districts at more than $4 million and library districts at more than $2.8 million.
• Commissioners approved paying for extra hours for a part-time data entry clerk to work in the county’s pre-trial release program. The clerk would work 20-29 hours a week. The cost for this position is still being determined.
Pre-Trial Coordinator Richard Lee told commissioners they need this help because the office has gone from 59 people in the program in October to 118 as of this week. He believes the increase may be due to a new prosecutor (Locke Thompson) and new associate circuit judge (Cotton Walker), both with different philosophies on how the program works.
Pre-trial services began in 2013 in Cole County. A pre-trial screening program is designed to help judges determine which defendants should be bonded and supervised rather than jailed before a trial has reduced costs and the number of prisoners housed in the Cole County jail.
At the end of 2018, figures showed a 71 percent success rate through the program’s first three years. Lee said the majority completed their probation and parole sentences, and just a few ended up in prison.
• Commissioners gave permission for Cole County Emergency Management Director Bill Farr to work on pursuing grant funding for an outdoor warning siren for the downtown area of Jefferson City. Farr said he had been made aware the state would have up to $30,000 for this. Farr noted when the older siren system was replaced, the siren that had been on top of the U.S. Post Office on High Street was taken down, so there was a need for coverage in this area. Earlier this month, the county received a grant for a siren for the Eugene area.