Cape Girardeau County's 200 full-time and 20 part-time employees will be eligible to receive county-paid flu shots, thanks to action this week by the County Commission.

In what Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy noted was an annual expense, the inoculations, at a unit cost of $20 each, will be administered at the employee's option through the county health department Oct. 13.

The county is self-insured and the expenditure will be charged to the county health fund.

Equipment buys

At the recommendation of 1st District Commissioner Paul Koeper, the commission agreed unanimously to purchase a $297,980 John Deere six-wheel drive motor grader out of the highway funds line item through a Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) contract.

MoDOT, Koeper said, can buy equipment in bulk and Missouri counties can obtain needed items at a lower expense.

Koeper said the out-of-pocket expense to the county will be offset by a $150,000 buy-back offer for its old grader, resulting in a net cost to the county of $147,980.

The commission also voted to buy, also using highway funds, an 84-inch wide BOMAG single-drum roller for compacting rock and dirt from Cape Girardeau's Erb Equipment through a Sourcewell cooperative purchasing agreement for $140,260.

The county will attempt to sell the current 15-year-old roller.

Koeper said he anticipates both pieces of equipment to arrive sometime in the first quarter of 2022.