SLAYTON — The Murray County Board will be considering a resolution to prioritize deficient bridges for repair or replacement when it meets today.

“These bridges are a high priority and require replacement or rehabilitation within the next five years,” Murray County Engineer Randy Groves said. “Murray County does 193 township and county structure inspections for bridges and large culverts over 10 feet in width. Bridges on the state highway system are inspected by MnDOT (Minnesota Department of Transportation) personnel.

“In order to be eligible for funding, a structure must be either structurally deficient, functionally obsolete or hydraulically inadequate, have a sufficiency rating of 80 or less, and be approved by MnDOT for replacement,” he said. “Currently, we have 12 that are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete and have a sufficiency rating less than 80. If it’s a township structure, the township also has to approve the replacement.”

The bridges include the following:

• An old bridge less than 10 feet on County and State Aid Highway (CSAH) 26 has an estimated project cost (EPC) of $100,000, of which $70,000 should come from state aid and $50,000 from bonds. It falls under county road jurisdiction and is scheduled for work in 2018.

“When it gets replaced, the new bridge will be larger than 10 feet and will receive a number from the state at that time,” Groves said.

• Bridge L5933 on road T-147 in Mason Township has an EPC of $375,000, of which $355,000 should come out of the Town Bridge fund and $20,000 out of the Local Tax fund. It is under Mason Township road jurisdiction and is scheduled for work in 2018.

• Bridge 51502 on road T-55 in Lowville Township, has an EPC of $300,000, with $340,000 to come out of the Town Bridge fund and $10,000 from the Local Tax fund. It is under Lowville road jurisdiction and is scheduled for work in 2019.

• Bridge L1570 on Murray County Road 86 has an EPC of $300,000 with $50,000 to come from Local Tax fund and $250,000 to come from Bond funds. It is under the county’s road jurisdiction and scheduled for work in 2019.

• Bridge L9177 on road T-62 has an EPC of $350,0000, with $340,000 to come from Town Bridge fund and $10,000 from Local Tax fund. It is under Murray Township road jurisdiction and scheduled for work in 2020.

• Bridge L1545on CSAH 25 has an EPC of $200,000, with $100,000 to come from state aid and $100,000 to come from Bond funds. It is under county road jurisdiction and is scheduled for work in 2021.

• Bridge L1519 on CSAH 1 has an EPC of $100,000, with $50,000 to come from state aid and $50,000 from Bond funds. It is under county road jurisdiction and scheduled for work in 2021.

• Bridge 51504 on CSAH 38 has an estimated EPC of $350,000, with $200,000 to come from state aid and $150,000 to come from Bond funds. It is under county road jurisdiction and is schedule for work in 2021.

• Bridge L1530 on Murray County Road 7 has an EPC of $200,000, with $100,000 coming from state aid and $100,000 coming from Bond funds. It is under county road jurisdiction and scheduled for work in 2021.

• Bridge L1649 on T-166 has an EPC of $200,000, with $190,000 to come from Town Bridge fund and $10,000 to come from Local Tax fund. It is under Lime Lake Township road jurisdiction and is scheduled for work in 2021.

Local roads play an essential role in the overall state transportation network and local bridges are the critical component of local roads systems, Groves said. With state aid funding being crucial to many of the above listed projects, Groves hopes that the county will support his request to get to rehabilitating them as soon as the funding comes in.

“‘Even-numbered years are supposed to be bonding years, so we’ll have to wait and see if the Legislature can agree on a bonding bill for 2018,” Groves said. “They didn’t pass one in 2016 and so they made a late attempt this year (2017) for some bridge bonds. We had a couple of county bridges on that list for a few years and we were finally able to replace them this fall.

Also being discussed at the board meeting will be salaries for hired positions.

The board meets with Auditor/Treasurer Heidi Winter, County Recorder Evey Larson and County Attorney Travis Smith today, and Sheriff Steve Telkamp is scheduled to meet with the board on Tuesday, Dec. 19. 

“The board meets with the elected officials and does a year in review regarding their offices,” said County Coordinator Aurora Heard.“The board will set the 2018 elected salaries at the last meeting of the year, which would be December 26.”   

The elected officials are not rated on the compensation/classification plan so they are not on a step system, said Heard. 

“We had a compensation/classification study conducted and the consultant is coming tomorrow to present the final results,” she said. “All employees (except the four elected mentioned above and the county commissioners) are pointed/rated on the compensation/classification scale.” 

The 2017 current salaries are:

Auditor/Treasurer $75,000 (not rated on compensation/classification scale)

Recorder $65,000  (not rated on compensation/classification scale)

Attorney $75,000  (not rated on compensation/classification scale)

Sheriff   $85,680  (not rated on compensation/classification scale)

Coordinator $83,304 

The salaries for the elected officials will not be set today, Heard said.