By Casey Jarmes | The News-Review
SIGOURNEY – During the April 28 meeting of the Keokuk County Board of Supervisors, the supervisors approved the FY2026 DOT and FY2026 County Five-Year Program budgets. County Engineer Andy McGuire explained the Five-Year Program only contains three projects in the coming year: bridge rehabilitation on Iowa County Line north of Pigeon Road, which they may not have funds to do; box culvert work on V5G south of Ollie, which he will need to work with the City of Ollie to complete; and a concrete overlay on Pigeon Road, possibly funded through the community project fund from Congresswoman Miller-Meeks, although these funds have not been appropriated yet and need to be run through committees for approval. McGuire stated that, with the current administration, there is no guarantee that the Pigeon Road project will live and that he wouldn’t be surprised if it got cut, but that he would do what he could to stay at the front of the line and get funding.
McGuire noted that a lot of projects on the Five-Year Plan are illustrative and not funded, because in the past, he has had projects need to be on the Five-Year Plan to receive funding, so he puts a lot of projects that may or may not be completed at the end of the Five-Year Plan to receive funding. Supervisor Daryl Wood noted that work on V5G was on the Five-Year Plan fifteen years ago when he began as supervisor and on the Five-Year Plan fifteen years before that, making it actually a Thirty-Year Plan before it got done.
Also at the Monday morning meeting, Wood noted that 10-15 Transit, which he sits on the board for, had been waiting for three years for the Iowa DOT to send them contracts to purchase new vans. He explained that 10-15 had been reprimanded in the past for purchasing vans without contracts, but that, because they had waited for so long, the price of vans had increased from $40,000 to $80,000. He noted that they need new vans soon, because some of the current handicap vans have 300,000 miles and need frequent repairs to keep running.
