Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Works Roads Grants topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Beltrami County public works outlines road transfers, grants and a busy construction season
Summary
Public works staff briefed commissioners on a planned road transfer with 10-Strike, quitclaim deeds to correct historic right-of-way descriptions, two new federal grants (including a $700,000 carbon-reduction award), and a construction program covering roughly 31 miles of paving and 60 miles of chip seal this summer.
Bruce (public works staff) updated the Beltrami County Board on multiple highway and right-of-way matters, federal grants, and a substantial construction program planned for the coming season.
He said county staff identified a mapping/description mismatch from a 1984 realignment and plan to correct it with quitclaim deeds that exchange the correct right-of-way descriptions with adjoining landowners. Those deeds would be placed on a consent agenda for formal approval.
Bruce reviewed a multi-year road-exchange proposal with the city of TenStrike: the county would take over Main Avenue (which connects a county road and a County State Aid Road) and give the city two blocks of County State Aid Road 901. He said the city has acquired necessary right-of-way for the county’s planned Main Avenue project and must pass three resolutions (removing a state-aid designation within the city, accepting the road from the county, and agreeing to the county accepting Main Avenue). Once TenStrike approves, the county will add different mileage in its state-aid inventory and designate County Road 305 (Wildwood Road between County 21 and State Highway 71) as a state-aid route to use the mileage.
Bruce said the county briefly received a newly announced grant from the ACTS Advisory Council on Traffic Safety but that the committee lacked authority to disburse funds; the county’s award was rescinded. On better news, Bruce said two federal grants were awarded: a $700,000 carbon-reduction program award for a 2027 project on County Road 32 that will reuse materials on-site, and a grant for the Lakewood Avenue (CR 42) project — a stormwater/erosion-control grant that will cover about half that project and moved the schedule from 2029 up to 2028 to align with funding.
Bruce described bid results: the county consolidated paving work into one large contract and received competitive bids that came in below engineers’ estimates. He attributed much of the favorable pricing industry-wide to lower bituminous material costs and the benefits of a larger, multi-county bidding package; bidders included Atkinson Construction of Grand Rapids. The public-works program for the coming season will include about 31 miles of paving and roughly 60 miles of chip seal, covering roughly 20–25 percent of the county’s paved mileage; Bruce said the construction program is now roughly $14 million after bid results and schedule changes (previous planning figures ranged higher).
Other updates included progress on the scenic-highway pedestrian-bicycle bridge (funding delayed by historic-preservation issues) and a bike trail to the high school under final plan review. Bruce said the county will continue working with townships and partner counties on shared projects and will propose one new joint project with Marshall County under discussion.
Commissioners asked questions about road naming/address impacts (Bruce said property addresses would not change), schedule shifts, and the causes of lower bid prices. Bruce said the county will present formal resolutions and quitclaim deeds for approvals when the other parties have completed their steps.
