Commissioners approve Westport Covered Bridge certification, staff seek INDOT reimbursement for 700 West detour work
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Summary
Decatur County highway staff briefed commissioners on several state-led road projects and received approval to certify the Westport Covered Bridge so the structure remains eligible for state maintenance funding; staff also requested signatures to pursue INDOT reimbursement for repairs on 700 West tied to an official detour for State Road 3 work.
Decatur County commissioners on Monday certified the county's Westport Covered Bridge as eligible for state maintenance funding and discussed detour and repair plans tied to upcoming Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) construction.
The certification motion passed unanimously after Todd Howe, Highway Department, explained the state needs formal notice of covered bridges to make them eligible for additional funding. "We have the certification here for the Westport Covered Bridge, that being our only one," Howe said prior to the vote.
The certification matters because state funding eligibility can cover inspection and maintenance work that small counties cannot always fund from local budgets. Commissioners voted to sign the certification so the bridge remains eligible for those programs.
Howe also briefed commissioners about several state projects that will affect county roads. INDOT asked to use 700 West and other local roads as official detours for a State Road 3/State Road 46 project. "They will film that road prior to this project. Anything that happened from State Road 46 to the Old Pass on 850, they will make repairs on that," Howe said. He asked commissioners to sign interlocal paperwork to allow the county to receive reimbursement for repairs on 700 West; commissioners agreed to sign the paperwork so Howe can submit it to INDOT.
Howe outlined the county's need to determine where INDOT will place hard closures and noted a procedure for unofficial detours: if a road will be closed more than seven days, it needs to appear on an unofficial detour listing. "If the road is gonna be closed for more than 7 days, then we need to have it on this feature," Howe said, noting he was still waiting for INDOT documentation that identifies closures precisely.
Commissioners and highway staff also discussed regular maintenance, flood-related overtime and recent CCMG/CHIP grant-funded chip-seal work. Howe said some gravel roads will require upgrades because heavy rain has caused washouts.
No new county funding was authorized during the briefing beyond the signed certification and the authorization to sign reimbursement paperwork; the INDOT detour work and subsequent repairs are subject to INDOT project schedules and reimbursement approvals.
The highway discussion closed with affirmation that staff will follow up with INDOT documentation and return any final interlocal agreements or reimbursement requests to commissioners for signatures when needed.
Less urgent items mentioned in the highway report included routine tree trimming, mowing, and ongoing patching and grading work. Howe said most chip-seal work from a 2024 grant is complete and that remaining funds were applied to other county roads that met grant criteria.
