Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Hurley — The Iron County Board of Supervisors’ Finance Committee approved the purchase of a pair of radar signs Thursday which will be installed near the two schools in the county.
The county had previously installed signs near the Hurley and Mercer schools, according to Iron County Emergency Management Director Stacy Ofstad, but they weren’t working the way the county had hoped.
“From the first year we had major issues with those two signs,” Ofstad said. “The one (in Hurley) never did work — we did get reimbursed for that — and the one down in Mercer does work when the battery is charged.”
He said the one in Mercer works for about a week until its battery runs down and then is out of commission for another week until the attached solar panel recharges the battery.
This time around Ofstad said the county will purchase the two devices from Traffic Logix, the company which made the two radar devices in front of the Luther L. Wright K-12 School on Ayer Street in Ironwood.
“They’ve been working flawlessly for a few years over there,” Ofstad said.
The two signs will cost $5,243, although $2,900 of the price will come from the refund the county received for the one defective device it previously purchased.
Ofstad plans to put the radar device currently installed near the Mercer school onto a trailer, so it — along with another portable system the county is getting from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation — can be deployed around the county.
In other action:
—The committee forwarded a recommendation to the full county board to make Forestry and Parks Administrator Eric Peterson project manager for rebuilding of Saxon Harbor, which was destroyed in the July 11, 2016, storm. The position would come with a 20 percent raise, according to the motion, through the end of 2019.
—The committee declined to take action on bids to repair the aging unit’s ventilation problem until it can be determined if the work can be done in-house for less money.
—The committee also declined to take any action on the compensation time issue with the Human Services Department, referring the matter to the Human Services Board for additional examination.
—The committee agreed the town of Mercer should be responsible for programming and ballot costs associated with its optical scan machine, as it is more expensive than the equipment the other towns use for elections.