Antelope County commissioners give nod to repair four 'worst' roads

Antelope County commissioners worked a little closer to resolving a plethora of road issues last week, although no decision was reached for bonding more work.

The bulk of the July 7 meeting at the courthouse in Neligh was dedicated to county roads, in one form or another. After clearing the agenda of other business and more than an hour of discussion with road superintendent Aaron Boggs, an unofficial agreement was reached, giving Boggs direction to move forward with work on four heavily traveled roads.

"Those are our worst stretches that we need to get fixed," Boggs said.

Neligh's Cemetery Road, from the north cemetery driveway to Highway 14, a joint project with the city of Neligh planned prior to last year's flood, was never completed. The project was re-examined, with a less expensive, experimental process planned.

Officials said, to their knowledge the process had never been tried in the county before.

After discussing the small scope of the project and little, if any, truck traffic, the process was given a nod. The county's share of the cost to grind and double armor coat was preliminarily estimated by Boggs at about $31,000, compared to last year's estimate for milling/overlay of $283,000 (county's 87%). There may be some shoulder and culvert work. Boggs was instructed to contact city personnel to confirm work on the city-owned portion of the road.

Two roads near the Plainview Country Club in the northeast part of the county will be worked on. The plan includes grinding existing asphalt, in place, on a mile of 865 Road, the east-west road that fronts the golf course, and repave with millings. Boggs said part of the road had been in "pretty good shape," when condition of oil roads was mapped earlier this year, but had gone from "orange to red" since April.

Condition of the county oil roads were ranked by Boggs by color, blue (pretty good shape), yellow, orange and the worst, red ("dire" condition).

A mile of 532 Avenue, between Highway 20 and the golf course road, will also be ground, but will be overlaid with six inches of Sinclair dirt. Boggs and commissioner Dean Smith said, although no one lives on the mile, there is truck traffic from farms to the north.

Commissioner Carolyn Pedersen asked about double armor coating the road. After she was told by Boggs there was too much heavy truck traffic, she suggested a weight limit.

Boggs replied the road is used by farmers, who need to haul grain to market.

Krebs opined at least one oiled road should provide access to the golf course due to the recreational activity, like the Grove Lake area.

A mile of the Neligh-Pierce Road will be covered with a six-inch layer of Sinclair dirt, as a temporary fix, estimated to cost about $61,000. Smith suggested the Sinclair layer, which has been successful on other roads.

Although skeptical, Boggs agreed to try the process suggested by Smith, saying he was not sure how the aggregate would bond to an asphalt base. He said holes had been filled with Sinclair, but the product had come out when it rained. He said the area is low and spring fed, with water coming up in the roadway. Neither Boggs nor former road superintendent Casey Dittrich favored grinding the existing asphalt, fearing loss of the road. Boggs estimated the cost for repaving the mile, including the Sinclair, patching the roadbed and an overlay, at approximately $570,000. He suggested bidding the project out, to get a more accurate pricing picture before a final decision is made.

"I would like to see us pursue putting an asphalt overlay or concrete overlay on top," Boggs said. "It is one of our highest traffic roads...Not saying Sinclair is a bad product, but that area in there, where it meets into another asphalt road... I feel it needs to stay pavement as a long-term solution."

Pedersen asked how long it would take to complete the four projects.

Boggs said Jason Jacobs, dba Spud Construction, is still working in the Clearwater area. Boggs estimated the grinder could move to Cemetery Road by the end of this week, as well as having Pahl Construction of Bazile Mills haul the Sinclair dirt on the Neligh-Pierce Road, with work on the two golf course area roads starting the following week.

Boggs inquired the commissioner's intent regarding a bond for road repairs, indicating bills would start coming in for recently completed work, estimating more than $670,000 dollars committed.

"Am I paying out of my budget?" he asked. "I don't want to pump the brakes now, we've got to get these roads drivable, passable, safe again."

He presented a spreadsheet of roads needing work, that projected approximate costs countywide, including paved overlays, at $11 million dollars to repair all the oil roads, with about $3.8 million of that for work on roads currently or potentially under road-use agreements with Invenergy and TC Energy.

About $3.6 million of the total would go to roads coded orange and red, that are in dire need of attention.

"I will have a better list next week, with prices," Boggs said. "Maybe I will make a priority list for hot-mix overlays."

Krebs said a conversation was needed about the bond. An email had been sent to the board by Tobin Buchanan with First Capital, quoting a 10-year bond rate of 1.25%. Smith questioned the rate, reporting that Madison County had recently issued road-repair bonds with 0.75% interest.

Pedersen said the neighboring county had put the issue out for proposals, making a competitive process. The commissioners agreed, unofficially, to contact Buchanan to question rate proposals.

Smith indicated he could only justify bonding $2 million, in light of assessor Kelly Meuller-Oltjenbruns' new projection for a 3% overall decrease in county valuation.

Krebs disagreed, saying costs will continue to increase and the county has a unique opportunity to borrow the funds at an all-time low rate, that will save taxpayers in the long run.

"The problem is we are at a million dollars, give or take, with just a few of these projects, and we haven't even really touched any improvements on any roads," Krebs said. "The other issue that we've got when we look at financing is, at 1.2%...you are looking at a 3 to 5% increase (in construction costs) every year we kick the can down the road."

She estimated an increased cost of 20 to 25% in five years, while Dittrich said the cost of hot mix increased 20% last year, in one year alone.

"I hate bonding these projects as much as anybody else," Krebs added. "But we are in a very unique situation with these interest rates...so we are not kicking this can down the road to save our taxpayers money."

The matter was to be placed on the July 14 agenda.

Boggs was given the nod to advertise for two additional road workers, one in the northern part of the county and one in the Oakdale area. He said surrounding counties have more employees per maintained mile and cited the growing number of gravel roads to maintain as asphalt is removed, saying even with the addition of a maintainer at Orchard, each operator still has about 65 miles to maintain. At an approximate eight miles a day, it takes about two weeks to get over the miles, dependent on weather, machine maintenance and other tasks. He said the sandy soils in the northern part of the county require more frequent maintenance.

"We are understaffed for the miles of roads that we have," Smith said.

When asked by Smith if the commissioners should consider hiring a contractor, Boggs said he has three graders to fill, although one is not in top condition, and he is "shorthanded" in seasonal part-time help.

"We need to hire a couple more people I think because we have people who are going to retire also," Jacob said.

"We wait until the guy's gone then we replace them and who's going to teach them?"

The request was approved 3-1, Pedersen voting nay, Henery absent.

Two bids were received for repair of the flood damaged Weinrich Bridge in northern Antelope County. A $108,984 bid with an October 2020 start date, from Rutjens Construction of Tilden, was approved, 4-0, pending review and approval by Brian McDonald, highway superintendent. The second bid, $137,383, with work to begin in March 2021, was submitted by Thiessen Construction of Norfolk.

Dittrich reminded the commissioners that the project has not yet been approved by FEMA, but the bridge needs repaired either way.

The status of construction of "Crumly Road" in the northern part of the county remains on hold. Dittrich said no word has yet been received from FEMA about funding the project.

A $33,000 change order for additional rock, and application for payment submitted by A&R Construction of Plainview, for work on two bridges in northern Antelope County, was approved, 4-0. McDonald said the amount of additional rock was unknown at the time of bidding, and A&R had offered it at a discounted price.

TC Energy personnel Dan Forbes and Lenisha Cummings again presented an updated road-use agreement and an amended "Exhibit A," the map showing the pipeline route and status of roads intended for use during construction. Although some issues were resolved, including verbiage and amendments that corrected previously denied access permit applications.

Negotiations came to a temporary stalemate. County attorney Joe Abler declined putting his stamp of approval on the amended RUA.

"It refers to Exhibit A all over the place," he said. "Without Exhibit A, how can we go forward?"

Cummings said the company cannot complete the map with upgrade roads until an RUA is in place. The agreement will be resubmitted with an amended map.

Mueller-Oltjenbruns reported while the commissioners convened as a board of equalization, handing them a 375-Page list of over/under valued real estate. She said after she completed valuations and mailed notices of change, the state had implemented a soil conversion law that drastically increased ag land values, as a result of LB372.

She said she had lowered assessed value of grassland in Area 1, as well as grassland and irrigated cropland in Area 3, but the soil conversions caused many values to go up from $50,000 to $100,000.

According to Mueller-Oltjenbruns, Steve Erdman of Bayard, the state senator who created the bill, had indicated that was not the intent of the bill. The local assessor had conferred with state officials and determined a way to offset the increases in most cases. As a result, the report includes 2,640 changes. Notice of the changes were mailed out, with affected property owners given an additional 30 days to file protests.

"It generally fixed the problem we had with people seeing these huge increases," she said. "(However), some may still see a small increase."

The commissioners approved the over/under report, 4-0, Henery absent.

Mueller-Oltjenbruns estimated the overall county real estate value decreased by 3%. She said values will be certified in about a month.

In other business, the commissioners:

~Approved an administrative plat for Donald Oelsligle, just outside the Tilden city jurisdiction, on the recommendation of zoning administrator Liz Doerr, changing the boundary of an existing platted lot and increasing the size from about one acre to 2.09 acres, to bring a septic system onto the same piece of property as the house;

~Authorized advertising for bids for patching/lifts on oil roads in several locations, pending McDonald and Boggs providing specifications and locations;

~Approved temporary access permit application submitted by Invenergy at a site where overhead lines will cross over 846 Road in Clearwater Township, near the Wheeler/Holt/Antelope county line;

~Tabled consideration of five underground permit applications submitted by Black Hill Corp., on 844 Road and 524 Avenue, pending review by Boggs;

~Received notification of application from Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy for Niewohner Grandchildren Partnership animal feeding operation, sites one through six; and notice application/modification for Brandon and Sarah Christiansen Livestock animal feeding operation; and

~Received notice from Natural Resource Conservation Service of approval of five Emergency Watershed Protection Program flood-repair projects, signed by Henery the previous week.