Kingfisher County commissioners learned of two unrelated matters at their weekly meeting Monday that will save county tax dollars.

An $800,000 judgment awarded by a county jury last month has been reduced to $125,000 and Vance Brothers Paving has offered to replace all blacktop work done in the county in the last year at no additional charge.

Damage Award Reduced by Law

In a split verdict after a three-day jury trial, nine members of a 12-person jury voted to award Garrick Yost $800,000 in damages after he crashed his pickup truck into an unmarked washout on a county road in 2017.

District 3 Commissioner Heath Dobrovolony reported that he had received a letter from attorneys representing the county informing him that the judgment was reduced to $125,000 by force of law under the Oklahoma Governmental Tort Claims Act, which limits damage awards against government entities to that amount.

The Times & Free Press obtained a copy of a journal entry filed in the case Monday, signed by attorneys from both sides and by the trial judge, Blaine County Associate District Judge Allison Lafferty.

The letter from the county’s attorney also noted that there were grounds for appeal or seeking a retrial if commissioners decided to go that route, but said that ACCO-SIG, the state’s statewide county self-insurance organization, was inclined to pay the $125,000 judgment and “just move on.”

Commissioners have until Friday to contact their attorney if they wish to appeal the decision, according to the letter, but commissioners did not indicate an intent to do so.

Dobrovolny, who was not in office at the time of the 2017 accident, told the Times & Free Press in an earlier interview that he is working on putting “protocols in place for proper response to notifications of road damage.”

“I want everyone to know that I and the other commissioners are and have been committed to ensuring the safety of the motoring public,” he said. “As individual commissioners that is our primary obligation.”

Paving Do-Over at No Charge

Shawn Brost and Tim Ishmael of Vance Paving Co made the offer to redo the blacktop work in all county districts last year at no charge this year.

Commission Chairman Ray Alan Shimanek said commissioners were not satisfi ed with the work done by the company last year at a cost approaching $1 million.

Brost and Ishmael said they wanted to make good on the projects with the hope they could continue doing business with the county in the future.

Commissioners approved a modification on a Turkey Creek bridge project 4.5 miles south and 2.4 miles west of Hennessey in District 2 bumping up the cost for right of way from $10,000 to $40,000 because of the need for additional and complicated right-of-way acquisition.

On a second bridge item, soliciting phone quotes for bridge work costing under $50,0000, commissioners accepted the lowest quotation for a bridge in District 3 located one-fourth mile west of NS 2780 Road on EW 840 Road.

Phone quotes included: Dean Horn, $37,000; Rick Dietz, $48,000, and Railroad Yard, $78,000.

The quotes include removing the old bridge, necessary dirt work and the construction of a steel and concrete structure 40 feet long and 30 feet wide.

The 2020 Emergency Management grant for the fi rst quarter of the 2020 fiscal year received approval as did declarations of surplus equipment for all three commissioner districts so that they can be included in the Circuit Engineering District 8 auction later in the year.

The equipment declared as surplus included:

District 3 – 2002 John Deere grader, 1996 John Deere backhoe, 2007 John Deere backhoe.

District 1 – 2004 Ranco belly dump trailer and 2008 Mack truck.

District 2 – 2005 Peterbilt truck, 2005 Ranco belly dump trailer, 2008 Volvo grader, 1978 John Deere 401B tractor, 1979 GY72 mower and 2018 Freightliner truck.

The following requests for county road pipeline crossing permits received approval:

• Oklahoma Natural Gas – gas line starting in SE SE Sec. 33-16-7 and ending in NE NE Sec. 4-15-7, District 3

• Encana – three permits in District 3 as follow: three-inch water line located three miles west and two miles south of Kingfi sher, and two permits for 16-inch and 12-inch water lines located in the same vicinity four miles west and one mile south of Kingfi sher.

• Enlink Midstream – four-inch gas line seven miles south of Omega, District 3.

• Petro Land Services – four-inch water line located four miles north and one mile east of Kingfi sher in District 1, and three four-inch water lines in District 2, one located six miles south and three miles west of Hennessey and two located approximately fi ve miles south and five miles west of Hennessey.

• OG&E – four locations in District 3 located in the vicinity of three miles north and one and two miles west of Okarche.

Commissioners also approved monthly reports for the offices of treasurer, election board and court clerk and changes in requesting and receiving offi cers for the Cashion Fire Department as follow: added Tim Townsend and Clayton Hill as requisition offi cers and Greg Smith and Casey Billen as receiving offi cers.

Also present for the meeting in addition to Commissioners Shimanek, Dobrovolny and Jeff Moss and the Vance Brothers representatives were City-County Emergency Manager Steve Loftis, County Clerk Jeannie Boevers, County Engineer Nik Smith, Pipeline Inspector Cody Murray, CED 8 Engineer Donnie Head and Dover resident Monty Taylor.