Malden group will design Web site

BENTON - Creative Design Group of Malden will be responsible for presenting Scott County to the world after being awarded the bid to produce the county's Web site.

County commissioners awarded the bid during their regular meeting Tuesday accepting as the best bid the group's offer to establish the site for a total project cost of $5,050 plus $60 monthly to host the site.

Funding for the Web site was provided by a $21,500 U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development grant. Scott County is to serve as the model for other counties.

Grant funds will also go toward "promoting Scott County and advertising our Web site address," according to Commissioner Jamie Burger.

Commissioners have discussed billboards on the north and south ends of the county as one option.

In other business during Tuesday's Scott County Commission meeting:

* Burger reviewed a packet from the Union Pacific Railroad with revised plans for adding tracks at Rockview, a small municipality located in the northwest corner of the county.

Burger said the drawings show all the changes requested by the county and Rockview residents to address drainage problems, but the cover letter does not reflect all the changes shown in the drawings and has different dimensions listed. Burger said he will contact railroad officials again to resolve the problem.

Commissioners said Allen Kuhn, manager of public projects for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, has verbally agreed to add another 3-foot pipe under their tracks. "That will allow the water to get away," Burger said.

* Commissioners set tax rates for the coming year after holding the required public hearing.

The Johnson grass tax rate was set at .01, the road and bridge tax at .2992 and the general revenue fund rate at .10, "same as what they were this year," Presiding Commissioner Martin Priggel said.

* County Clerk Rita Milam said she does not know what kind of impact new overtime rules will have on the county, but hopes to know more following the county clerk's meeting she will soon attend. "We are going to have a session on that," she said.

Priggel said they could try the Department of Labor, but said they are undoubtedly "covered up with questions" right now.

* The county's new plat books have arrived, according to Priggel, and are now available at the county clerk's office for $26 each.

"I think they're really good," Burger said. "With the color they are a whole lot easier to follow than our previous books."

"We appreciate the advertisers helping us out," Priggel added. The county's cost was offset by local merchants who placed ads in the plat book.

Priggel said the new books have a "lot of improvements" over the last plat books which were produced in 1999.

Foldout maps produced by the same company will also be available soon. "They will be free," Priggel said.