Commissioners advance infrastructure upgrades and building demolition projects

With all members present, the Lincoln County Commissioners met Tuesday, Oct. 3 in the Lincoln County Boardroom to discuss agenda items including networking equipment, sound masking systems, beacon tower installation and demolition of county buildings.

Director of IT, Jake Oakland approached the commission to request board action to approve a quote for purchase of networking equipment for the Administrative Offices.

“I am seeking approval to upgrade the network infrastructure of this building that we’re currently in. Most of the equipment has reached its end of life with no support so we’re just looking to get it upgraded and the total cost of that will be $140,809.59 and the service will have a five-year agreement with it as well,” Oakland said.

The upgrade will replace all the networking equipment in the Administrative Offices and connect all the devices into one program. The project was budgeted for the 2023 fiscal year and is projected to be under budget by $10,000. Motion approved unanimously.

Building Superintendent, John Rombough requested approval to purchase a sound masking system for the office space of the Commission Administrative offices and the Planning and Zoning conference room in the amount of $6,433.14.

“This is just for the second floor, involving those spaces for right now. I originally reached out to them to do all the planning and zoning to include GIS so basically that corner of 2nd floor and that came back a little over $11,000 so when Steve and I met about it we decided to downgrade it to just include those three offices another reason I was looking at doing this is because at the time we were talking about utilizing the Carla’s old office as a judge’s chambers and we knew there would be probably some sound penetration issues there for privacy but since that has not taken place yet we’re not putting that in part of this project,” he said.

With the design Rombough is interested in purchasing, more components can be added at a later date if needed. With no input, motion approved.

Airport Manager, David Meyers joined the meeting to request board action to approve and authorize the Chair to execute a quote for a beacon tower installation.

“If anyone has been to the airport, we have a tower with a beacon out there that is very old, it’s two wooden posts that stick up around 45 feet and there is a center post. In the spring we had to do some repairs on it that cost around $700 due to neglect. It’s difficult to get the light down to repair it. Right now, we can get a brand new one, which is coming from the Springfield airport, and the only cost to us would be the set up which would cost $11,675,” he said.

Installation could take place as early as December, making the new beacon operable by Christmas. The length of the new beacon will be around five feet shorter than the current one, but Meyers feels confident it will be sufficient for the needs of the airport.

“It will look really nice, and I can also take it down and repair the bulbs myself,” he said. Motion approved.

The North ramp at the airport is needing attention and Meyers requested board authorization to approve an agreement with the State of South Dakota and Lincoln County for project 3-46-0078-021-2023.

“There’s been some major activity out there since the first week in June and it’s just about to end here in about 7-10 days. The paving is going to start next Monday, so our North ramp will be completed and it’s going to be a great addition to the airport. I just need to get approval for the payment to the South Dakota Department of Transportation,” he said.

Motion approved.

Commission Administrative Officer, Stephen Rasmussen requested board action to approve the Request for Proposals for removal and demolition of county buildings.

“Back in late August we received notice from the city of Canton concerning the prior 4H grounds there’s buildings that were still on the property that per contract are owned by the county they put us on notice that they would like those removed so per the agreement we are putting together an RFP to remove the buildings and we have two additional buildings in the county that are owned by the county that we would like to have eliminated and so for efficiency we’re going to include the old jail across the street as well as a residential structure right along the taxiway at the airport so all three of these sites would be included in the RFP and again there should be some cost efficiencies in being able to have one particular outfit remove all the structures,” he said.

Motion approved.