Significant road work will be coming soon to increase safety on Lyon County’s asphalt road network.
During the Lyon County Commission’s regular action meeting Friday, commissioners approved paying any additional costs that might arise with a planned upgrade project through the Kansas Department of Transportation’s High Risk Rural Roads program, which is scheduled for fiscal year 2028. If you recall, commissioners approved applying for the program earlier this year and were awarded a $620,000 grant for surveying county roadways and upgrading signage as well as restriping county roads, which sees an annual cost of roughly $60,000 per Lyon County Engineer Wayne Scritchfield.
He explains that while KDOT is covering 100 percent of the planned work with the $620,000, the county’s action Friday is accounting for any expenses that go above the estimated cost for any number of reasons.
The project will cover the entire 119 miles of asphalt roads in the county; however, an exact start and end point for the work has yet to be announced. In other matters Friday, Scritchfield also stated the county had recently completed phase one of a stabilization project on Road 150 between Road J and Kansas Highway 99.
Phase two of the project, which will cover Road 150 to Road 160 on J, will begin Monday and is expected to be completed by Thursday. To avoid any confusion, Scritchfield says they will be keeping traffic closed from 150 to Highway 99 throughout the remainder of the project.
In other business Friday, commissioners approved the 2026-27 county budget for publication. As it stands, the budget comes to just over $40 million with a mill levy rate of 56.406, which is a 0.042 percent decrease from the previous year. Williams says the commission, like last year, has cut a considerable amount from the budget, with commissioners and Williams noting Wednesday that leadership cut as much as they could without affecting any essential services.
Separately, Emergency Communications Director Roxanne Van Gundy submitted a better-than-$13,000 payment for the city of Emporia’s CAD firewall replacement due to technology upgrades, while County Controller Williams submitted a request to approve an over $600,000 bond payment to the State Treasurer’s Office. Both items were approved unanimously.
County Commissioners will next convene this coming Thursday for their regular action meeting starting at 9 am inside the Lyon County Courthouse Commission Chambers.
