Supervisors press for equipment plan as secondary roads seeks funding; health department reserves questioned

Secondary Roads equipment replacements, the county's gravel road improvement program and the Siouxland District Health Department's reserve levels prompted extended discussion and requests for follow-up during a Woodbury County Board of Supervisors budget hearing.

Secondary Roads Director Laura Sievers told supervisors that multiple work trucks, graders and gravel trucks in the county's fleet are more than a decade old, that repairs are consuming a rising share of the equipment budget, and that the county's gravel road improvement contract pricing will not allow placing the previously targeted 2,000 tons per mile across all planned miles.

Sievers said the department has already spent a high percentage of this year's repair budgets on parts and outside labor and suggested trading older vehicles earlier in their life cycle to avoid repeated engine and transmission rebuilds that are expensive and still produce limited remaining life. She told the board two motor graders, two tandem dump trucks and other replacement units were on the department's seven-year replacement list and urged supervisors to consider additional capital funding or alternative funding sources for equipment.

The board discussed options for paying for equipment outside the secondary roads fund, noting that some capital purchases can be funded from other county funds. Supervisors asked Sievers…