Three bids were submitted for the Riley County Health Department’s standby power system. Bids were opened and read aloud by Commissioner, Dave Lewis during Thursday’s county commission meeting.
The first bid came from Economy Electric Incorporated from here in Manhattan for $45,036.
D.L Smith out of Topeka submitted the second bid for $50,352.
The final bid came from Electrical Concepts Incorporated out of Wamego for $49,955.
The commission unanimously approved to send the bids for staff evaluation and recommendation.
Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce President, Lyle Butler started his first economic development update of the year with some good news. CivicPlus will soon be vacating their temporary location to move into their new building.
The official ground breaking ceremony is set to take place Wednesday, January 23rd at 2:00 p.m. Butler told the commission, Local Architect, Brent Bowman will be designing the building. “It will be very attractive and should draw people’s eye to the downtown area”, Butler said.
Butler shared a few other items of good news, including numerous local company expansions set to begin this year. Although he could not share which companies, Butler did say this will provide more job opportunities for our region.
As for the Flint Hills Discovery Center’s first year-end numbers, the center is currently in the mid 50,000’s for paid attendees and hopes to make it to 60,000 before it’s 1 year anniversary in April. Butler said, “They are going to smash that 60,000, they are doing well”.
Sunset Zoo also had a successful year as they had record breaking attendance in 2012.
County Treasurer, Elieen King shared the monthly financial reports as well as some additional good news.
In June of 2014, the Kansas County Treasurer’s will hold their annual meeting here in Manhattan at the Hilton Garden Inn.
King also shared numbers involving interest rates, investments, sales tax revenue, and budgeted revenue.
County Counselor, Clancy Holeman also shared a brief update during his administrative work session. Holeman asked for the commissioners’ signatures on a MPO document, and recommended having a representative from KDOT come in and meet with the new commission sometime to bring them up to speed on everything.
