Jason Peters, Superintendent of the Marshall County Highway Department appeared before the County Council on Monday seeking additional funds for this year’s road improvement projects.
Earlier this year the County was awarded a million dollars from Community Crossings. The County is required to match that grant with at least 25%. The County Council has pledged $400,000 towards the grant but when the bids were opened last week the low bid was $1,451,443.84 from Millstone Contractors North. That means Peters is short $51,443.84 for the Community Crossing Projects.
As a way to stretch the dollar, the county also bid several projects that are adjacent to the Community Crossing project with the understanding that those projects would be funded solely by the county. The bids were opened and the low bidder was Millstone at $1,176,442.60.
The Highway Superintendent suggested paying the additional $51,000 for Community Crossing from Rainy Day Funds since that is where the $400,000 was coming from. He offered $500,000 from Motor Vehicle Highway towards the additional paving projects and the County Council motioned to give the remaining $676,442.60 out of the General Fund.
The Council vote was unanimous to do all the work.
Peters said his in-house paving projects will be short for the 2021 Road Program completion. He suggested taking an additional appropriation of $300,000 out of Local Roads & Streets to add to the in-house road program. He will still be short about $100,000 but is willing to wait and see how the season goes along and what the weather impact will be. Peters will submit the additional for the August meeting of the County Council on the 9th.
