Commissioners reject pipe bids, release information on power outages

Cape Girardeau County commissioners rejected bids for pipes from the Cape Girardeau County Highway Department during their Thursday, Jan. 9, meeting.

Three bidders had responded to a December call for bids, but none of them had the right type of materials necessary.

“We ask the commission would approve all future highway bids so we don’t have to ask every time,” the county’s highway administrator Allen Friedrich said.

The commissioners did authorize the highway department to issue new requests for bids, as required.

Friedrich also gave the commissioners a report on the state of the roads following the ice storm Sunday, Jan. 5.

“All the roads are passable. We’re doing cleanup work; we’ll probably be doing cleanup work for several days. There are still some power lines that are down that have been reported to citizens, but we’re able to get all of them around them,” he said.

A report from emergency management director Sam Herndon said there were still some 586 county residents with no power following the storm. Around 7,000 residents were without power earlier in the week.

New appointment

​During their meeting, the commissioners appointed recently elected Public Administrator Kyla Biester as Cape Girardeau County’s representative on the East Missouri Action Agency Board.