At their Monday meeting, the Wright County Board of Supervisors held bid-letting for work to drainage district 194 in Norway Township. 1,600 feet of tile needs repairs in that location. This project was rebid after receiving high bids that concerned the board last month. The engineer’s estimate for the project was adjusted to $178,800. Six bids were received this time. The low bid was from Rognes Brothers Excavating out of Lake Mills for $157,492. McClure Engineer Dan Wiedmeier will review bids before the board takes action next week. The low bid received last month for the project had been $219,158.
In her weekly update, Sandy McGrath noted there was an increase of 14 COVID cases over the past week. She said none of the infected people had been vaccinated. The county still sits at around 46% for overall vaccinations. McGrath added, “We have by no means reached herd immunity.”
She also briefly spoke about the “Stop the Bleed” program, which trains people to recognize and react to life-threatening bleeding episodes. Public Health used COVID funds to purchase kits to train people in the program. McGrath said the training is free to businesses and those interested can contact Public Health about scheduling it.
Engineer Adam Clemons spoke about the standing corn snow fence policy. He investigated the potential cost to the county for paying landowners for corn fences versus the regular orange fences they typically use. The corn fences could range in cost from 42 cents per foot to over a dollar. Orange fences cost about $2.43 per foot. The board wants to precede with corn fences when possible. They first need to decide on a county average of bushels per acre to pay for per the policy. Supervisor Dean Kluss will look into averages in the county and they will take up the policy again next week with those numbers.
In other business, the board approved a resolution transferring $500,000 to Public Health funds from the General Basic and General Supplemental funds. They appointed Karl Helgevold to serve as the director and Kluss as alternate to the Central Iowa Community Service mental health region board. The board also accepted the Treasurer’s semi-annual report. In other drainage matters, they approved a pay estimate of $75,688 for work to drainage district #177. Matt Odland was appointed to the benefit commission for drainage district #194 to serve with Bob Ritter.
