The Lincoln County Commissioners met Tuesday, March 14 in the Lincoln County Board Room. Members of the commission heard concerns brought before them on roads in the area before moving into executive session.
The first order of business was a public hearing to consider a petition to vacate the following described highway: Portion of the Townships statutory right-of-way, approximately 2,825 feet in length and 66 feet in width, the northern terminus is the Big Sioux River and the Southern terminus is at the intersection of County Highway Number 116/ 276th St. and 484th Avenue.
With no applicants present in the meeting, Auditor, Sheri Lund addressed the Commissioners.
“In the discussion we have had with legal counsel, he is recommending denying the application based on South Dakota Codified Law 31-18-3, that’s because the road goes into the Big Sioux River,” Lund said.
Commissioner Joel Arends made a motion to table the conversation to give the applicant one more chance to make their case to the commissioners.
“I believe they had a conversation with him yesterday, so he was aware that this was going to be the recommendation,” Lund said.
With the applicant being unable to be reached by phone, and no opponents or proponents to the petition, Commissioner Jim Jibben made a motion to approve the petition with the understanding of the recommendation is to deny. Motion carried, petition denied.
Highway Superintendent, Terry Fluit joined the meeting to request board action to award a bid for the 2023 paving project on CR152 from Hudson to CR117.
“We had five bidders for this project and the low bid was Central Specialties with a bid of $3,930,109.62. The other bids were from Border States Paving Inc $4,019,066.20, Duininck Inc $4,239,616.47, Journey Group Companies $4,456,037.09, and Asphalt Surfacing Company $4,755,692.90. The engineer’s estimate was $3,937,435.20,” Fluit said.
With no questions, the Commission approved the bid to be awarded to the Central Specialties.
Fluit then requested board action to award a bid for the 2023 surface treatment project on CR135 and CR140 which is nearly 30 miles.
“We had three bidders on this, the low bidder was ASTECH Corp for $1,269,989.43. The other bids were from Road Guy Construction $1,300,668.10 and Bituminous Paving Inc. $1,347,176.80. The engineering estimate was $1,125,810.10,” Fluit said.
With the cost of materials rising, the price is more than Fluit expected. “The bid is around $160,000 higher than the Engineers estimate, and I will say this is about $300,000 above what I had budgeted, but I think what we’re going to end up doing is probably cut some miles so we can still do the project,” he said.
With no concerns, the motion to approve the big to ASTECH Corp was approved.