The Wright County Board of Supervisors meeting was a little smaller on Monday morning as various employees and presenters joined the meeting via video conference due to the recent state and county edicts concerning the coronavirus.
Adam Clemons, Wright County Engineer, presented the Wright County Secondary Roads FY 2021 IA Dept of Transportation Budget. He noted, barring another major snow event, there will be about $906,000 carry over amount from last fiscal year, putting the budgeted expenses at about 5.7 million. Clemons also presented the county’s five-year construction plan. Big plans for the next year include repaving C-20 and work on a bridge in the southwest part of the county. The estimated cost of construction for the next year is about $2.70 million, coming from various funds.
A conference call was held with Franklin County on bid letting for work on shared drainage district #118. All the work being done would be in Franklin County. The low bid came from Mountain Movers construction out of Rowan, with their bid around $335,000, significantly lower than the engineer’s estimate on the project. The Franklin County Supervisors noted that they have had public input saying that the project should wait given the economic climate. No decisions were made during the meeting as the bid will be good for 60 days.
The board heard a presentation from Joe Harrah about drainage ditch brush and weed control for the next couple of years. Harrah went over many places in the county that need drainage ditch clearing, including removing trees, beaver dams and treating stumps. His estimates for the next couple of years were approximately $50,000 per year. He noted that after these next two rotations, the cost will likely go down as the problem areas will be better managed and not require as much work. The board did not make any decisions about the matter at that time and said they would contemplate it.
The board discussed the relocation of private tile located at the Agri-business Park. The private tile goes across the Agri-business park into a swale. The goal would be to relocate it to drain to a swale more to the north. Chairman Dean Kluss noted that this important to do should the county ever decide to sell the lot later. The board passed a measure that would accomplish this at the cost of $10,148 to the county with the private landlord paying for some upgrades.
In the weekly conference call with Reilly Construction, they reported that they are still working on the sewers and hope to finish up the storm sewer this week. Repairs were made to the sanitary sewer based on issues discovered by using video equipment. They will video again to make sure the fixes worked.
