Kingfisher County Commission Chairman Heath Dobrovolny reported to fellow commissioners Monday that the construction steel supplier on the county’s six-month bid list has advised that it will not be able to supply steel at listed prices due to soaring costs.

The county will need to advertise for bids each time it needs steel in the future.

Dobovolny told of a recent experience when his district (No. 3) needed steel for a project.

He said the supplier said he would need to find a manufacturer who could produce the items.

When the company called back on Wednesday, Dobrovolny said he was advised the prices available on Monday were no longer good because prices had increased in the interim.

District 2 Commissioner Ray Alan Shimanek said that explains why a supplier had recently offered to buy steel products he had stockpiled at his shop. (He kept the materials.)

Similar delays and price spikes in construction and manufacturing materials of all sorts also have been reported in the private sector.

Commissioners declared a 20-year-old transit (survey tool) in the engineer’s office, which has broken, as surplus so that it can be removed from county property lists.

Two permits were granted for pipelines to cross county roads for the following:

• Recoil Oilfield Services – three-inch poly line located nine miles east of U.S. 81 on the Dover-Crescent Road (north side), District 1.

Commissioner Jeff Moss said he has seen signs that oilfield activity is picking up in the area.

• Ovintiv – 12-inch water line located five miles west and one mile south of Kingfisher, District 3.

Shimanek said he would attend a Circuit Engineering District-8 meeting Wednesday at Alva. He is the county’s designated member on the board of directors.

City-County Emergency Management Director Steve Loftis reported the county’s active covid case remained steady at 73 but the new count included five new cases with five cases recovered.

Cases by community were listed as follow: Cashion 10, Dover three, Hennessey 14, Kingfisher 36, Loyal three and Okarche seven.

The county has experienced 2,137 covid cases since the start of the pandemic, from which 2,066 residents have recovered.

A County 911 Emergency Call Center board meeting was ˜scheduled later Monday.

Dobrovolny said he had been in contact with a company to discuss demolishing the old sheriff’s office-county jail complex. The commissioners’ plan is to turn the area into additional courthouse parking. The old jail-sheriff’s office, which was built in 1936, had developed structural problems requiring frequent repairs, resulting in the construction of a new county justice center located at the south side of Kingfisher.