Contractor selected for state paving projects
Milestone Contractors has been chosen to do the county’s Community Crossings paving projects this year. The Columbus company was the only contractor that put in a bid to pave Bellsville Pike, Greasy Creek and Nineveh roads.
Milestone’s grand total for the project is $1,596,228.47 to pave 14 miles. Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner said three contractors had requested plans, but only Milestone actually submitted a bid.
When asked why there was only one bid, Magner said companies are busy finishing up projects from last year due to bad weather, along with doing projects through this year’s round of the Indiana Department of Transportation’s Community Crossings grant funding.
As soon as the state approves the contract, the county will receive the grant money to do the paving. The $333,000 in required matching money will come from the highway department’s motor vehicle highway fund.
Magner said the county will still have money for local paving projects in 2019 and that he would have the list of roads to be paved this year at an upcoming commissioners meeting.
No dates have been set yet for when any paving will be done this year.
Commissioner Diana Biddle said she had received calls about Becks Grove Road. She said she recently drove down Greasy Creek Road and noticed it was in need of repair, too.
New weight limits for bridges might be coming
A new regulation from the Federal Highway Administration could result in the county having to put up more weight limit signs on more bridges in the county.
The regulation is a part of the countywide bridge inspection, Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner said June 5 during the county commissioners meeting.
The highway administration is now requiring counties to rate their bridges for multiple trucks. Magner said this may result in the county having to put up more weight limit signs on more bridges.
He said he was working with USI Consultants on what the county actually has to post on bridges now.
USI does the bridge inspection report in the county. The report is required by the federal government to be done every two years, but some bridges in the county, like the Bean Blossom Covered Bridge, are inspected once a year or even every six months depending on their condition.
Magner said that though the new regulation may result in some changes, they may not be drastic. “It may be a 24-ton sign where there was never a sign before,” he said.
The county has to comply with the posting in order to receive bridge funding. “It’ll just increase our sign maintenance a little bit,” he said.
Update on status of Bean Blossom Covered Bridge
At the June 5 Brown County Commissioners, it was reported that there was nothing wrong with the structure of the actual historic bridge itself, but rather the approach to it.
Commissioner Diana Biddle said she had heard some people in her area were concerned about the bridge itself falling through. Biddle is the commissioner for Jackson Township where the bridge is.
Highway Superintendent Mike Magner said the actual bridge is “as good as it ever was”; the problem is in the support structure. He said that on the north end there are two small approach spans that are exposed. He said there are five beams under the wooden deck and that one of those beams is rusted out.
Magner said that under federal standards, if one beam is out, it affects the whole span of the bridge. Replacement beams have been ordered, he said.
Land use, easement agreement OK’d for cell tower
After initially denying a land lease easement, the Brown County Commissioners have now approved a contract to put a cellphone tower near Deer Run Park.
The commissioners approved the easement unanimously on June 5 to place the tower on property that was jointly purchased by the commissioners and Brown County Parks and Recreation Board. The easement also had come before the commissioners in April and May, and at that time, they had said they would decline it.
At the May 1 meeting, commissioner Diana Biddle brought up concern about there not being a clause in the contract that says the lease is nontransferable. The contract also did not define the area where the tower would be built.
“They’ve made some effort to allay some of those concerns,” she said at the May 15 meeting.
The easement includes a lease payment to the county of $1,000 a month for the first five years, then going up 15 percent every five years for 30 years.
A new map included with the contract showed exactly where the 100-foot-tall single-pole tower would go: on a 75-by-75-foot area on the northwest corner of a six-acre parcel which the commissioners and parks board own.
“It is west of the old saddle barn on McLary Road up in that corner. It has to be that location because of floodplain issues and height limit. Second of all, that is not the same size as a normal cell tower. It’s much smaller. It’s only 100 feet, and the base is a third of a size of what you’d normally see,” said Keith Baker, who volunteers with parks and rec.
At the May 15 meeting, the agreement was tabled so that the commissioners could meet with the parks board to discuss this tower and the radio communications tower. However, on June 5 the commissioners approved the agreement since it provided an exact location for the tower and would not allow for the company to transfer the tower to someone else without the county’s knowledge.
“This way we would at least have knowledge and know who we’re dealing with,” Biddle said.
This tower is different from the project to build a new communications tower for emergency responders on State Road 135 North, which has been delayed after the discovery of a deed that limits what can be built so close to the highway.
