Riley County Commissioners on Thursday unanimously approved an easement requested by the Kansas Department of Transportation for an upcoming roundabout project at Hwy 13 and Tuttle Creek Blvd.
KDOT is purchasing a little more than an acre of land on county property near the volunteer fire district’s station 112, located on Hwy 13 near Tuttle Creek Dam. KDOT will pay the county $1,837.50 as it prepares for the upcoming project. Public Works Director John Ellerman…
“Basically the easement was to improve the drainage. They increased the depth of the creek and lined it with rock to ensure the drainage comes across there and keeps it from filling. The permanent easement is so they can maintain that drainage across the highway,” he said.
The project will coincide with another roundabout project less than a mile west on Tuttle Creek Blvd at the intersection of Seth Child Road. Bids will be let this fall with construction slated to begin next spring.
Detours will be shared closer to when construction begins, but it will impact traffic between both intersections along Tuttle Creek Blvd. Ellerman says with more traffic being detoured onto Marlatt Ave, a temporary traffic signal will be installed where Marlatt meets Seth Child.
In other business Thursday, Riley County authorized its Information Technology department to spend a little over $60,000 for a pair of network area storage devices.
IT Director Cory Meyer says the purpose is for storing backup data.
“The actual device we have now is full. We’ve been doing an overflow to a secondary device but we just need to stay ahead of our growth of Riley County and our data,” he said.
Meyer explains the reason for two devices is because the device the county currently uses for disaster recovery at the Public Works facility has been undersized for a while, despite continued growth in the county.
“Areas of the new EMS building, elections. Rules and regulations coming through and out retention times on those, and some of those are very lengthy up to 18 months or two years on some of the things we have to store. This is critical infrastructure for Riley County and what we do, ” he said.
The purchase includes three years of support and service necessary for setup along with data transfer.
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