Anderson County approves sand lease and equipment purchases to expand oil-sand road maintenance

Anderson County Commissioners on a May meeting approved a multi-part plan to source sand and buy equipment intended to expand the county’s oil-sand road stabilization program.

The commissioners approved a one-year lease with J2 Southern Land and Cattle LLC to remove sand from a site on Highway 155 near Frankston, and separately approved a vendor bid to prepare a prep site and push sand for use in county road work. Commissioners also authorized transport spending and purchases of mixing equipment tied to the program.

County officials said the sand site is roughly 10 acres and is located less than a half-mile from a county barn in Frankston. The lease terms recorded at the meeting call for a $2,000 annual lease payment and $2 per cubic yard for sand removed. Precision Terrain LLC was approved to clear and prepare about 1 to 1.5 acres and to push roughly 2,000 cubic yards of sand for $3,200, the court record shows. Commissioners also authorized a source transfer of up to $2,000 to pay for transport of equipment to retrieve a purchased soil stabilizer; Precinct 4 agreed to contribute $500 toward that transport cost.

Commissioner Will Banks and Commissioner Hill described the moves as intended to reduce material and hauling costs and allow more local mixing of oil-sand for roadway surfacing. Banks said the soil-mixing equipment will “drastically cut our expenses” by enabling the precinct to mix oil on site. The court recorded that one soil stabilizer located by the precinct is priced at $9,000 and a separate Cmax cement-mixer-style stabilizer purchased for Precinct 4 is $6,000; both were discussed as capital outlay items.

Actions recorded at the meeting show the court approved the land-use agreement to buy sand (motion by Commissioner Hill; second by Commissioner Chapin), approved payment to Precision Terrain LLC for site preparation in the amount of $3,200 (motion by Commissioner Will Banks; second by Commissioner Meehan), and approved the transport source transfer up to $2,000 (motion by Commissioner Chapin; second by Commissioner Mann). The commissioners also indicated the soil-stabilizer purchase is included in the bills and therefore did not require a separate motion on the floor.

The court discussed funding sources and accounting treatment. Commissioners agreed amounts over $2,500 would be capitalized in capital outlay accounts. County staff noted the need for W-9s if payments are made to two different companies owned by the same person. No external approvals were listed as conditions to begin site work.

The county did not set a firm production start date at the meeting, but the presenter said site-prep work could begin near the end of the week or in the following weeks once clearing and pushing of sand are complete.

Commissioners did not record any dissenting votes on these items; all motions passed by voice vote and were noted as “so ordered.”