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County to go after its share of $20 M left in state flood relief bill
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
The Minnesota Legislature moved swiftly following the 2007 floods that devastated Southeast Minnesota when it passed a $150 million flood relief bill. A portion of the bill, $26 million, was earmarked for rebuilding the region’s roads and bridges.
At the July 8 county board meeting, Houston County Highway Engineer Marcus Evans reported there is still nearly $20 million in unappropriated funds. Those funds must be designated for specific projects in the very near future, or returned to the state’s general fund.
The seven counties in Southeast Minnesota that were part of the federal disaster area, and the cities and townships that are located within those counties, will be competing for those funds. The deadline to submit project applications was July 15. A commission made up of highway engineers from the seven counties, and possibly other government officials, will review the applications and make recommendations to award the grants.
“This could get quite competitive, although the county engineers in this corner of the state work very well together,” Evans said. “We all know the issues and the needs. Houston and Winona counties experienced the majority of the damage to public infrastructure. I feel we should have a good shot at having many of our proposed repair and mitigation projects approved.”
Evans had a list of 14 repair and mitigation projects for county roads and bridges as well as four township road projects. The total cost of the proposed projects is $15,602,547. Of that amount, $13,282,547 would be paid for by the state flood relief bill; $1,090,000 from state aid funding, and $1,230,000 from a local match. The local match, which would be about eight percent of the total grant that is approved, would pay for right-of-way purchase, engineering, design, and inspection work.
“Do you have any idea when the projects will be approved,” Commissioner Tom Bjerke asked? “If we have to come up with possibly $1.2 million for our share, we will need to budget for this. And with the 3.9 percent levy limit, we’re going to have to know where we stand with this before we start our budgeting process.”
Evans said he really didn’t know how long the process would take. But he hoped by fall they would know.
Bjerke then asked what the time frame would be to complete the projects.
“Are we going to have to have all of these done within a year or two to receive the state money,” he asked?
Evans replied there is usually a five-year time limit for projects like these.
“I really don’t know how many of these we will get approved,” Evans said. “We put together quite an extensive list, but they are all roads and bridges that were damaged in the August 2007 floods, and are all safety issues. Safety and mitigating to prevent future damage are the top two criteria. We’ll just have to see how much we can get.”
In other action:
Bridge bid is approved
The board approved the low bid submitted by Lunda Construction to replace bridge #7075 on CSAH 10 in Sheldon Township. Lunda’s bid for $765,425.96 was the low bid of three submitted and nearly $47,000 lower than the engineer’s estimate. The other two bids were submitted by Minnowa Construction and Brennan Construction.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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