The county Road Commission will have to pay for damages caused to the Maple City post office building last week during snow removal work.

At its rescheduled regular meeting Tuesday morning, manager/superintendent Herb Cradduck said a commission work crew was removing snow from areas in Maple City, including snow banks that accumulated behind the post office building. The back wall was accidentally damaged by a front-end loader.

"The bank got pushed up against the wall and when the guy tried to lift the snow, it pushed farther into the wall and caused it to partially collapse," he said. The post office remained open and no one was injured during the incident. The Road Commission is working with the building’s owner, Larry Stachnik of Maple City, to reach an agreement on paying for the repair.

Cradduck said an initial estimate for repairs is about $1,500 for cement and another $1,500 for labor. He said while the back entrance to the building was damaged, the building remains structurally sound.

"We’re going to ask the owner if it’s okay to wait to do the work when it’s warmer. Trying to do concrete and mortar work when it’s cold adds to the cost," he said.

Road Commission workers have been busy over the last two weeks clearing out snow banks and other large accumulations of snow in areas around the county. Cradduck's crews have encountered frozen snow banks that are difficult to move.

"It would be nice if we could just let it all melt, but some of these banks have got to be moved," Cradduck said.

Road Commission Chair Lee Bowen was vacationing out of the county. He has missed the last four Road Commission meetings dating batck to mid January.

In other business during its 30-minute meeting, the Road Commission:

• Heard an update of an ongoing civil lawsuit filed in 13th Circuit Court to amend the plat of Leland. A group of property owners is asking Circuit Court to amend the Leland plat to eliminate an unimproved public road right-of-way that runs through their properties. The right-of-way goes from Mill Street on its north end to its south end, with Chandler Street on the east and Edward Avenue on the west. The Road Commission has stated no opposition to the abandonment of the unimproved right-of-way. Vice-chairman John Popa said Leland Township official should study requests for abandonment like this very carefully. "You don’t want to eliminate all unimproved rights-of-way in case you need some room for a utility easement in the future, like say for a water system," Popa said.

• Approved 2-0, with chairman Lee A. Bowen absent due to being on vacation in Hawaii since mid-January, a bid from AIS Construction Equipment, based in Alba, for a self-propelled power broom for $42,451. AIS was the only company to submit a bid. Clerk Joe Nedow said the commission had been using power brooms that can be mounted on the front of its front-end loaders, but found using the loaders for the task was fiscally insufficient. "We found using these brooms helps up prolong the use of the front-end loaders, saves us on the amount of hours those machines would rack up for spring street sweeping," he said.