The Cole County Commission approved a contract Tuesday for a long-awaited economic development project in Jefferson City's Algoa area.
Bids were opened two weeks ago on a rail spur extension, and commissioners awarded a contract Tuesday to Railworks Track Services of Bridgeton. The company was the low bidder on the project at $373,210.
The grading subcontractor is Twehous Excavating, Cole County Engineer Eric Landwehr said.
The project, first discussed in 2013, will extend rail service to Morris Packaging and was part of the development agreement when Morris built its plant a few years ago.
This a cooperative project with Jefferson City, and the county and city will pay a portion of the project cost. Also, as part of the agreement, Morris Packaging is paying a portion of the project cost.
The track runs from Command Web across Militia Drive and continues along the south side of Morris Packaging and Alpla. In the future, the spur potentially could be extended across Stertzer Road to serve Scholastic and other businesses in the Algoa area.
The contract calls for the project to be done by Oct. 31, Landwehr said.
Commission OKs bridge replacement
Also Tuesday, commissioners approved an agreement with the Missouri Department of Transportation to replace a box culvert on High Point Road over Gibler Creek at the intersection with Kings Chapel Road. Landwehr said this is a standard agreement to initiate a project to receive federal funds to replace this box culvert which is on the deficient list. He said it is the same thing the county did for Old Forge Road bridge replacement in February.
The estimated cost for the High Point project is $300,000.
Landwehr said they plan to do the design on High Point this year and bid the construction portion of the project in 2020.
Poll worker pay increased
In other action Tuesday, commissioners approved paying election poll workers more money.
County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer had budgeted to pay the increases partly from his part-time fund with the rest to come out of contingency. The April 2 municipal election was the only election scheduled this year, so for that election a supervisor judge went from $125 to $150 and regular judge went from $100 to $120. With those increases figured in, it cost $2,720 to pay the poll workers. The workers put in a 15-hour day for an election.
County Finance Officer Debbie Malzner said the increase was put in due to the federal minimum wage increase, and that process will continue through 2023 - so next year, with four elections on the schedule, there will be another increase.