Major asphalt overlay projects on county roads in Districts 1 and 3 drew bids from four companies at Monday’s weekly county commission meeting.

Commissioners tabled action on the bids until next week’s meeting to allow staff to review them more thoroughly.

The bids included:

• Schwarz Asphalt, $5,289,731.61;

• Ellsworth Construction, $5,527,390.43;

• Haskell Lemon Group $5,431,623.95, and,

• Cummins Construction $6,999,941.87.

District 2 was not included in the asphalt projects this year because of a state law banning extraordinary spending in districts in which the county commissioner is leaving office.

The law was enacted after a county commissioner in an easterly Oklahoma county built a county hard-surface road up to the driveway of his residence after he was defeated for re-election years ago.

District 2 County Commissioner Ray Alan Shimanek has announced his retirement at the end of his current term in January, placing the district in the “lame duck” category, thus not eligible for the construction work scheduled this year in the other two districts.

Many states and the federal government have enacted a similar law.

The District 1 projects include a road south of Cashion, the Big 4 road south to S.H. 33 (three miles) and the District 3 projects include the road from Loyal CR 2700 starting at CR 720 extending north to CR 670 (five miles) and completion of the last 1.5 miles of the Waterloo Road, beginning at the east edge of Cashion.

Commissioners also approved: • a state detention transportation claim of $321.38;

• disposal of a hemocue for the county health department; • a District 3 waterline crossing for Ovintiv located one mile west and 3.5 miles north of Okarche;

• a permit for 12-inch and three inch county road water line crossings in District 2 for K&J Construction located two miles south and five miles west of Hennessey;

• settlements for Greg Stangl in the amount of $8,700 and Mary Stangl in the amount of $8,600 for rights-of-way; and,

• payment of $1,743.41 for JP 34160(04) for rightof- way.

Commissioners also approved a Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) report (a document related to use of federal grant funds).

All commissioners – Jeff Moss, District 1, chairman; Shimanek, District 2, vice chairman, and Anthony Schwarz, District 3 – were present, along with County Clerk Jeannie Boevers as minute clerk, Roy Counts of Haskell Lemon Group and Cole Roberts of Circuit Engineering District 8.