By Jody McCoy
Presiding Commissioner John Griesheimer in Franklin County, Missouri, admitted the county violated state law by not going out to bid for a recent project. According to The Missourian, “Griesheimer said the county failed to follow the proper procedures for work relating to the dismantling of a radio tower. Because the work cost more than $6,000, he said the county should have gone out to bid for the project.” The Cimmissioner admitted that it was an honest mistake made by Franklin County 911 Director Vince Zagarri. “For us, it’s embarrassing — the fact that we broke the law,” Griesheimer said. “All we can do is self-report on what we did and not do it again. That’s about all we can do.” In October, the county entered into a contract with A&W Communications to construct a new tower at the sheriff’s office. The contract didn’t address the dismantling of the old tower, but under a maintenance contract, the company was going to migrate antennas and lines from the old tower to the new tower. The Missourian reported that A&W Communications asked when the county would be dismantling the told tower, and Zagarri felt it would be efficient to dismantle the tower while the company already had their crane on site. “The entire time we were operating under the understanding the work would be part of the maintenance contract with A&W,” Zagarri said. “A mistake was made,” Griesheimer said. “We’ll move forward and we won’t make the same mistake again.” (The Missourian)
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