$144,932.70 Oil-and-Chip Voucher Heads to Montgomery County Full Board

Article Summary: A $144,932.70 oil-and-chip voucher payable to Louis Marsh will require a roll-call vote at the full Montgomery County Board because it exceeds a $50,000 threshold, the county board administrator told the Roads & Bridges Committee on Aug. 5. The committee separately recommended payment of the bills on a unanimous voice vote.

Oil-and-Chip Voucher Key Points:

The voucher totals $144,932.70 and is payable to Louis Marsh, according to County Board Administrator Mike Plunkett’s report to the committee.

Plunkett said the item must be roll-called at the full board because it exceeds the county’s $50,000 threshold.

The committee’s only substantive vote was a motion to pay the bills, made by Vice Chair Dr. Patty Whitworth and seconded by Rob Corso, which carried with all members in favor.

The minutes do not record what roads the work covered, where it was performed, or whether the voucher was among the bills the committee acted on.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY — A $144,932.70 oil-and-chip voucher will require a roll-call vote at the full Montgomery County Board because it exceeds the county’s $50,000 threshold, County Board Administrator Mike Plunkett told the Roads & Bridges Committee on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, at the county highway department in Hillsboro.

The minutes record the payee as Louis Marsh and the purpose as oil-and-chip. They do not record what roads or township the work covered, when it was performed, whether it was bid, or under what agreement it was undertaken. No supporting voucher, invoice or contract is reproduced in the minutes.

Oil-and-chip, also called chip seal, generally refers to a surface treatment in which liquid asphalt is sprayed onto a roadway and covered with stone chips — a method commonly used on rural roads.

The report came under Other Business. The committee’s agenda listed no items under its standing “Update/Approval” heading, and no motion specific to the Louis Marsh voucher appears in the minutes.

The committee did vote on a motion to pay the bills, made by Vice Chair Dr. Patty Whitworth and seconded by Rob Corso. It carried with all members in favor. The minutes do not itemize which bills were included and do not state whether the $144,932.70 voucher was among them, so the two items are recorded here as the minutes record them: separately.

The minutes also do not identify the source of the $50,000 threshold — whether it rests in county board rules, a resolution or state statute — or state which fund would pay the voucher.

As a committee of the county board, Roads & Bridges recommends rather than enacts. No payment is authorized, and no money moves, until the full board acts. Plunkett’s report indicates the voucher is bound for a recorded roll call at that meeting.

Present were Corso, Whitworth, Evan Young, Keith Hancock, Committee Chair Ethan Murzynski and Doug Donaldson. Cody Gudgel was absent. The meeting adjourned at 8:52 a.m. on a motion by Hancock, seconded by Whitworth.