COUNTY NEWS: Road washout repairs; Yellowwood Road project; new highway trucks

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Rain causes problems on some county roads

The Brown County Highway Department is working down a list of washed out culverts caused by heavy rain at the end of February.

“The rain would have been nice if it was a little bit of snow, but that rain has gotten in under the bases of some of our roads and created this freeze/thaw phenomenon that is tearing things up,” county commissioner Diana Biddle said at the March 7 commissioners meeting.

Biddle gave Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner’s report, since he was away attending road school at Purdue University.

Biddle said the department has a “long list” of washed out culverts. She said a section of Mt. Moriah Road that was not part of a recent paving also will be fixed. “It’s like no pavement at all,” commissioner Dave Anderson said about that section.

“That’s one of the reasons why we have been pushing full-depth reclamation in order to get more solid bases underneath some of these roads,” Biddle said. Full-depth reclamation is a process of grinding up the existing road bed and using it to build a more stable road base before repaving.

Second phase of Yellowwood Road project starting

Milestone Contractors is beginning site work now for the second phase of the Yellowwood Road project happening this year.

Brown County commissioner Diana Biddle reported March 7 that Milestone was starting to clear brush around the work area and move utilities.

The existing road will be ground up, the repaved, on a section of Yellowwood Road from State Road 46 West to the north side of Duncan Church. Work is scheduled to begin around May 1.

Crews will also be replanting vegetation to control erosion because it was planted too late in 2017.

The work, projected to cost $4.36 million, also will involve rebuilding nearly 3 miles of the gravel Yellowwood Lake Road north of the lake parking lot.

Highway department to buy three new trucks

The Brown County Highway Department will purchase three additional trucks using money from the 2018 budget.

Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner found three 2015 Mack Class 8 heavy duty trucks that were on a two-year lease from the factory. “The trucks are in like new, excellent condition with very little miles,” commissioner Diana Biddle said at the March 7 commissioners meting.

Magner had budgeted to buy two trucks this year using financing, but Biddle said with this package deal, the county would be able to get three trucks without any financing. The total cost is $390,000 and includes an extended warranty.

The two trucks Magner had been considering buying were around $480,000.

In December, the department lost one truck to a fire. At the end of 2017, Magner bought three trucks out of that year’s budget by moving unused money among line items.

“Having several older, high-maintenance trucks that are on borrowed time, this will get us caught up on a regular replacement schedule, which is something Mike has been attempting to do for the last three or four years,” Biddle said about the newest purchases.

Biddle said the county also had worked to get the Brown County Sheriff’s Department on a cyclical replacement schedule. Chief Deputy Brad Stogsdill told the commissioners that soon, all of their vehicles will be no older than 2014. He said most of the department’s maintenance costs are now from normal servicing.

“We think that similar trend will continue in the highway department,” Biddle said.

The commissioners unanimously approved the truck purchases.

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