IVANHOE — Lincoln County Engineer Dave Halbersma will be making request with the City of Arco to share the costs of needed maintenance work on Arco Park Road.

Lincoln County Engineer Dave Halbersma went before the Lincoln County board Tuesday asking whether the Arco park road, near Anderson Park, is the responsibility of the county or of the City of Arco. 

Halbersma said he checked the minutes from 38 years ago when the first request for help on this street was approved. There was no indication on the length of time the county would take care of the street, he said.

“Is it on an ongoing basis or was it a one time thing?” Halbersma asked. “It needs patching again. The Arco mayor said it was a city street.”

The board asked what major projects the county has done for that street over the years. 

According to Highway Maintenance Supervisor Don Scholten, it was 12 years ago that they had done seal coating on that street and also patched some pot holes.

“We are unsure who paid for the maintenance work at that time,” Halbersma said. “The County Highway Department did the work but did the City of Arco pay for it?” 

About three to four years ago, there was a DNR joint project on the culvert, Scholten said. 

“It will take two to three loads for this year’s patching at $1,000 per load,” he said.

The commissioners expressed concern over setting a precedent.

Halbersma was asked to speak to the mayor of Arco again and asked if the city would be willing do this project on a cost-share basis. 

Also during this meeting, Halbersma made a request of the county board to purchase a CAT motor (road) grader for $325,145 as opposed to a John Deere grader for $301,916. There would be a trade in value of $66,750 with CAT on their old CAT grader, bringing their price down to $258,395. John Deere would give them $65,000 on trade-in for a net of $236,916. Both vehicles would come with full-machine warranty. Halbersma also included the estimated trade-in value of the new CAT to be $10,000 to $15,000 more than the John Deere, a fact that the board recognized as a balancing factor. Halbersma told commissioners he preferred the CAT.

Halbersma said that $178,000 was budgeted for this year toward grader expenses. Halbersma said he had hoped to hold off longer before replacement, but that option didn’t seem feasible.

The board unanimously approved the CAT purchase.

Halbersma also presented bids for bituminous work this summer. Bids were opened Friday.

Duininck Incorporated came in with the low bid of $856,001.61, 14.10 percent under estimate. Bituminous Paving Inc. came in at $987,001.44, at 0.96 percent under estimate. The third and last bid was from Central Specialties Inc. with a bid of $1,043,429.61, which was 4.70 percent over estimate. The engineer’s estimate was $996,559.65. The board unanimously approved the low bid from Duininck Inc.

They also approved the low quote of $82,668 for seal coating from Flint Hills. Flint Hills’ quote beat out competor Jebro Inc whose quote was at $89,145.76, which was over the engineer’s estimate of $89,095.

The seal coat quotes were not bids since the value of the project was under $100,000.

Halbersma had also presided over an public hearing regarding the five-year road and bridge plan that generated an attendance of more than 30 county residents. Halbersma said that Pipestone county used an idea to turn over most of its county roads without state aid to the townships to reduce the cost of maintenance to the county. This generated questions regarding the cost of narrowing the roads versus maintenance costs if left the same width.

Since the public hearing was just a fact-sharing session, there were no resolutions made.

Lincoln County Parks Supervisor Daryl Schlapkohl asked to replace the roof on the county’s cabin at the park and have it tuck-pointed. He said most of the funding would come out of his budget and donations.

Commissioner Mic VanDeVere suggested allowing for more donations for the project.

During the commissioners reports, VanDeVere shared two requests from Southwest Health and Human Resources’ committee meeting. First, they would like the Lincoln County Board to consider the use of e-cigarette language in its ban on cigarettes on county property.

The second was to replace Lincoln County Commissioner Jack Vizecky as a representative on the Southwest Health and Human Services’ board. VanDeVere said they did not feel they could work with Vizecky on issues regarding health.

In a 3-1 vote, with Vizecky objecting, the board passed the motion to replace him. The county board will appoint his replacement at their next meeting.

The county board also set June 20 as the next Board of Equalization meeting, from 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. with the regular commissioners meeting at 2 p.m. by unanimous vote. the date was requested by county assessor Bruce Nielsen.