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Show Davis County Public Works Dept. recognizes employee excellence By SCOTT SUMMER1LL Davis County Public Works personnel were honored for outstanding out-standing performance with certificates certifi-cates of appreciation and cash awards as part of the county's incentive in-centive program at last Wednesday's county commission meeting. Director of Davis County Public Works Sid Smith presented awards to Roads Supervisor Don Nappies, Roads Department employee Joe Mark and Physical Maintenance Supervisor Bob Petro for their design de-sign and fabrication of a Rick Box used for applying asphalt cold mix to roads. Assistant Director of Public Works Scott Williams described cold mixing as the most inexpensive inexpen-sive method of re-surfacing existing exist-ing roads. The process involves mixing road-base gravel with oil and spreading it on existing roadways. road-ways. The mixture is then rolled several times until it becomes a strong, smooth surface. The cold mix process produces the same results as a hot mix (a mixture of asphalt, oil and gravel that is combined com-bined and heated at a plant and hauled by dump-truck to the site), but at a much reduced cost. Unfor tunately, the cold mix process can only be used when daytime temperatures tem-peratures exceed 70 degrees. The trio's Rick Box made laying cold mix more efficient and cost effective, according to Williams. The device, which was built with scrap parts from other equipment, allows road crews to control the amount of cold mix being applied more precisely, which saved the department, and taxpayers, about $3,566 in 1989. Joe Mark and Vehicle Maintenance Mainte-nance employee Rocky Hamblin received awards for their development develop-ment of a tailgate used to control the flow of chip seal to roads. Chip seal application involves laying down a coat of tack oil on a road surface and spreading gravel on top of it. "It's a life extending process for roads," said Williams. Williams said the department's dumps were equipped to deliver a non-adjustable 8-9 foot spread, which meant wasted gravel and extensive cleanup. The new tailgate tail-gate allows roads crews to adjust the strip of gravel to as little as two feet. "You don't waste gravel and you don't have to clean it up," Williams said. "It also cuts down on broken windows because they can pull it down to the exact width they need. The tailgate was used through most of 1989 with a savings of $3,752 to the county's taxpayers. Finally, Public Works Secretary Linda May was awarded a certificate certifi-cate for saving the county nearly $228,000. May said the county had received relief money from the state and federal government during the 1983-84 flooding disaster to repair damages. When the agencies began be-gan sending bills for repayment of some $268,000 from the county, May started digging through receipts re-ceipts to determine the actual amount owed. When all was said and done, the final tally reached only $40,000. May's relentless research re-search resulted in a savings of over $200,000. Williams said the awards were good examples of what the county's incentive program is all about. "It gets people to realize their potential and saves taxpayers money," he said. "It brings both quality and quantity up and promotes pro-motes an atmosphere of non-complacency among the workers. They know their opinions are valuable." |