In a meeting with county officeholders on Tuesday morning, the Platte County Commission came together in a unified front to deliver some bad news. After weeks of struggling to balance budget numbers, commissioners decided it was necessary to make staff cuts that will touch nearly every office throughout the county. The commissioners announced that 13 employees’ jobs were affected by the reduction, effective immediately.
Two of the Platte County Commissioners had to take the lead in distributing the 2006 budget to the media and general public late Tuesday afternoon. After approving Auditor Sandra Thomas’ notice that the budget would be available to the public at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, first district commissioner Tom Pryor and second district commissioner Jim Plunkett were the officials on hand to provide budget copies to the public and media. Thomas said that while she was not at her office, her employees were attempting to make copies of the budget but were experiencing problems with the copy machines.
‘Yes, it is open to the public’ said public works director Greg Sager regarding the recently constructed $3.2 million Humphrey’s Bridge just southwest of Platte City. While the bridge hasn’t received an official grand opening from the county government, county officials were curious to see if the bridge would receive as much traffic as what has been estimated.