Federal funding approved for county bridge project

A further hurdle has been crossed by Montgomery County in seeking federal funds for a bridge project.
In April, The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors has issued its support for potential federal funding for work on the 250th Street bridge in the Grant Township, as Axne’s office informed the county she was eligible to submit up to 15 potential projects to the Budget Appropriations Committee in the U.S. Congress.
At the supervisors meeting May 24, assistant to the engineer Barry Byers said he had received an update on the status of the project from Axne’s office.
“We received an email that stated the application for funding we had turned in had been forwarded on to the appropriations committee for review and possible inclusion in the fiscal year 2023 funding bill,” Byers said.
Supervisor Donna Robinson asked if there was anyone that the supervisors themselves could contact to further solidify the request and make it more likely for approval.
Supervisors Chair Mark Peterson felt that the voters from Axne’s own district would have as much weight as themselves. Byers said the community was represented in their request.
“We had seven letters of support from community members, and all of those letters were sent along with the letter the supervisors issued in support of the funding,” commented Byers.
Byers also informed the supervisors that the road maintenance crews were going to move to a different schedule for the summer months.
“The crews are going to be switching to four 10 hour days throughout the season. They will operate Monday through Thursday, for the first month or so, and then if we run into any trouble with not having people available on Fridays, we’ll stagger the shifts around.
Byers said the plan was to implement the schedule on the first week after Memorial Day, and run the new schedule until Labor Day. Byers also stressed it was for the road maintenance crews only, and the office staff would still work normal Monday-Friday hours.
“The start time will be at 6 a.m., currently the crews start at 7 a.m., and the end of the shift will be at 4:30 p.m., “ commented Byers.
As for road maintenance, Byers said the crews have been hauling rock and prepping roads for the first application of dust control. They’ve also started roadside mowing.
Robinson also asked Byers if the road crews had particular maps for this year’s rock haul, or if it was random. Byers said the majority of the rock will be used for spot rocking roads earmarked for dust control.
As for other maintenance, Byers said each grader operator submitted a map with markups on it indicating which roads they felt needed touched up by rock, and the secondary roads department uses those maps for bigger rocking projects.