Paving should begin soon on some county roads after the Brown County Commissioners plan to award project bids this week.
The commissioners will have a special meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 13 at 2 p.m. to award the bids.
Work could begin later this month or early November depending on the contractor’s schedule and weather, Highway Superintendent Mike Magner said.
On Oct. 6, bids were opened from four contractors: Milestone Contractors, E&B Paving, All Star Paving and Dave O’Mara Contractors Inc.
The lowest bidder was All Star Paving and the second lowest was E&B Paving. Total bids ranged between $1.72 to $1.68 million to pave sections of seven county roads this fall. Contractors submitted bids for each individual road on the list.
The following roads are still set to be paved this year: One mile of the Old State Road 46 “business loop” in Gnaw Bone; one mile of Old 46 from Nashville to the Brown County State Park; nearly a mile of Oak Grove Road off of Country Club Road; three miles of Bear Wallow Hill Road; over three miles of Four Mile Ridge Road; over two miles of Three Notch Road; and over one mile of Ford Ridge Road.
Magner will make a recommendation this week on either having one contractor pave all of the roads or splitting the roads up between contractors, “whichever one comes out cheaper and better for us,” he said.
During last week’s meeting, Commissioner Diana Biddle suggested not waiting until the next regular meeting on Oct. 20 to award the bids since “daylight is burning” on the time to pave this year.
Redistricting?
On Oct. 13 the commissioners will also discuss the possibility of redistricting the county after Census tract information shows the county’s population deviation from 10 years ago is 19 percent, which is nearly twice the allowable percent the county needs to redistrict, Clerk Kathy Smith told the commissioners on Oct. 6.
Biddle was going to work with Smith to get voter population numbers from the county’s GIS map ahead of the meeting this week.
“It will be a matter of looking at the Rubik’s cube and seeing what pieces of the puzzle we have to move,” Biddle said.
