The boat launch and park on Neely Henry dam has been officially taken in by the county, and commissioners said that plans will be announced soon on expanding the already busy site.

Also the first large bus that will be used for the county’s growing public transportation program should arrive sometime in May with two more scheduled for delivery in September. The St. Clair Area Transit buses will be wheelchair accessable and hold more passengers than the current buses being used. They were paid for through federal stimulus money.

The county will soon hire one person on a parttime basis to be used as the county’s animal control liasson.

Commissioners agreed on Tuesday to help Argo with some engineering and construction work around its new town hall at a cost to the county of $14,788.

The county’s road and engineering department, which has been quite busy in the last three months because of freeze and thaw problems causing roads to crack, will be getting new equipment. A new front loader, which can be attatched with many large, industrial construction rigs,  will be purchased along with two new backhoes.

The new equipment will replace their older counterparts, which were sold at auction for $187,000 and were then sent to Haiti to be used as that country rebuilds from last months devistating earthquake. There is a $194,000 shortfall that the county will make up to purchase the new gear, but county engineer Dan Dahlke said that the older equipment was definately in need of replacement.

A new four-wheel drive agricultural tractor will be purchsed in the next few weeks for the engineering and road department at the cost of $60,225. It, too, will replace an older, heavilly-used machine. The sole, low bid on the tractor came from Snead Ag out of Blount County.

Pipe damage on Loch 3 Road and Lakeshore Drive kept teh engineering department busy for several hours this week. A section of the Lakeshore Drive pipe, which boaters often travel through in the summer, had to be cut and taken out. A diver had to submerge himself in order to complete cutting of the 16-foot diameter pipe.