After weeks of stalemate and contention, Jefferson County says it is now willing to keep its money and let Douglas County close the Kansas River bridge at Lecompton when major repairs are made next year.

The impasse over what to do about the bridge that spans the border between the two counties stemmed from a misunderstanding, Jefferson County Commission Chairwoman Lynn Luck said Wednesday.

“This could have been decided weeks ago,” she said.

Still, a formal decision has yet to be made.

Jefferson County was unaware that Douglas County seriously intended to go ahead on its own and close the bridge and pay for all repairs, Luck said. She and fellow Commissioners David Christy and Francis Grollmes were unaware of any specific motion or vote by Douglas County to that effect, she said.

“That’s what we questioned,” Luck said.

But Douglas County’s intentions were repeatedly reported by the media. There shouldn’t have been any confusion, Douglas County Commission Chairman Bob Johnson said.

“I’m not willing to accept that Jefferson County is now saying that they didn’t know what we were proposing,” he said.

KDOT involvement

Luck said the first Jefferson County knew of Douglas County’s decision was a reference to it in a letter dated Sept. 26 that Douglas County Counselor Evan Ice sent to the Kansas Department of Transportation. Now Jefferson County has requested confirmation of the decision from Douglas County, Luck said.

The two counties differed over closing the bridge for the repairs, which was the Douglas County option, or leaving one lane open, Jefferson County’s preference. Last month Jefferson County asked KDOT Secretary Deb Miller to decide the issue. Douglas County initially opposed KDOT’s involvement, saying it was moving ahead with the bridge project on its own. Last week, however, Douglas County withdrew its objection.

Earlier this year the two counties reached an agreement that called for Douglas County to pay about 89 percent of the repair costs. There was no formal contract signed, however.

During their meeting Sept. 20, Douglas County Commissioners Johnson, Jere McElhaney and Charles Jones said they were willing to pay for the entire bridge project, which with closure could cost at least $3.3 million. They then approved sending a letter to Jefferson County outlining their reasons for closure.

The letter also outlined some cost options they hoped Jefferson County would participate in. Those options included paying nearly 11 percent of the project’s cost, as was earlier agreed to, paying for contractor incentives or engineering design work.

Douglas County Engineer Keith Browning appeared at the Jefferson County Commission meeting Sept. 25 to discuss the letter. Commissioners said they intended to go ahead and ask KDOT to mediate the issue.

But it was as early as Aug. 30 that Douglas County commissioners began saying that they were willing to close the bridge on their own and pay for the repairs.

Luck and Christy have said they wanted to keep the bridge open because closing it would hurt the Perry-Lecompton school district and Perry businesses.

Douglas County says that keeping the bridge open would present its own safety problems because the bridge would still have to be closed up to 60 days.

Still not settled

Even with the stalemate nearing a possible resolution, Jefferson County commissioners aren’t necessarily pleased with how it could end.

“I’m not happy about (closing the bridge) because ultimately it doesn’t help the people at all, even if it saves Jefferson County hundreds of thousands of dollars that Douglas County would be paying,” Luck said.

So far, Jefferson County has not withdrawn its request for KDOT to decide the bridge issue. KDOT is continuing to line up a third party mediator to handle the matter, a spokesman said. Douglas County hopes that won’t be necessary.

“Our goal is and has been all along to resolve the issue and do the project with Douglas and Jefferson county agreeing and not involving a mediator or the secretary of transportation, and I honestly believe that is what the secretary of transportation wants,” Johnson said.

During their meeting Wednesday night, Douglas County commissioners signed a letter to Jefferson County reiterating their intention to go ahead with the bridge project and pay for repairs. They noted, however, that without Jefferson County’s help there will not be enough money to pay for incentives to contractors to complete the job as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Douglas County does say, however, that it never intended to pay the entire cost of repainting the bridge superstructure, which could be several hundred thousand dollars. Douglas County does expect Jefferson County to pay its proportionate share of the repainting cost.