Union-Bulletin

Garfield County Commissioners are Robert Johnson, Dean Burton and Wynne McCabe. With all present Monday, the board:

DRILLING: Approved $12,427 payment to Haz Tech Drilling for samples of rock taken to evaluate their suitability as road fill. The quote for the project was $11,575, but the company drilled deeper than originally planned because the rock was very high-quality at the site chosen, and extracting more samples meant less drilling would need to be done in the future.

MAINTENANCE: Because of mild end-of-winter conditions, county maintenance is returning to a summer schedule next week instead of waiting until March 1. On summer schedule, all workers work Monday-Thursday, instead of the winter schedule in which half work Tuesday-Friday.

INTERNET: Heard a plan to increase the county’s internet to 10MB, from its current 1MB. The current county Internet bill costs approximately $600 per month, and 10MB would raise that cost to about $1,800 per month. The commissioners referred the issues to the computer committee for further discussion.

TRANSPORTATION: Designated Rebecca Ruble as the contact person for transportation grants. Approved a $6,500 loan to rural transportation because the state of Washington has not reimbursed rural transportation yet for expenses from 2012.

BID: The bid on a rock crushing contract was moved to next week to allow companies more time to prepare.

INTER-COUNTY MEETING: A public meeting to discuss issues facing Southeastern Washington Counties will be held Monday, Feb. 25 at 6 p.m. at Tonia’s Cafe in Pomeroy. Representatives from Asotin, Columbia, Garfield, Walla Walla and Whitman counties have been invited to attend.