WESTMORELAND — The Pottawatomie County Commissioners took a tour of four different county buildings during Monday’s meeting.
The buildings toured included the Noxious Weed Department, the Justice Center building basement, the Administration Building, and the Pottawatomie County Health Department. The tours took up most of the morning and the purpose was to explore some of the different capitol improvement projects that are on this years budget list. During Monday’s meeting commissioners discussed a few of the different obstacles ahead with each building but tabled that information to be discussed at a future meeting, to provide more time for clarification.
“I thought our walk around was more eye-opening.” Commissioner Travis Altenhofen said. “Instead of just seeing it on paper.”
Commissioners also discussed the Marlatt/Junietta Bridge Expansion report put together by two Kansas State University civil engineering students; Corbyn Coffelt and Amy Wegner.
After much discussion Commissioner Pat Weixelman said “We need to keep our minds open on the rural county.” Making sure to focus on the smaller, low volume bridges as well as the high traffic ones.
The commission also heard from County Assistant Planner/Zoning Enforcement Officer, Stephen Metzger, on part of the transportation portion of the comprehensive plan.
“The county has the semi-annual Highway 24 corridor implementation committee that meets twice a year. One of the recommendations is to expand that into a countywide transportation committee. It would include county and local officials, KDOT, fire department, EMS, and Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office to find out what some of the issues are up front,” Metzger said.
The second recommendation is updating KDOT’s functional classification map for Pottawatomie County.
“It takes the roads in the county and assigns a functional classification from local roads up to interstates or freeways,” Metzger said. The latter does not exist within Pottawatomie County.
The last recommendation for the regulatory portion of the transportation plan is to revise the development regulations for Pottawatomie County. Metzger plans to present the second half of the transportation recommendations at the commission’s May 6 meeting.
