Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Capital Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Lewis County presents 2026 capital plan: fleet replacements, bridge work and $1 million in equipment requests
Summary
County purchasing director presented a draft 2026 capital plan proposing equipment replacements and capital projects, reporting a decline in proposed capital spending from last year and identifying funding sources including HAC fund balance and $1 million from taxes for new equipment.
Bridal Hannah, director of purchasing, presented the county's draft 2026 capital plan and proposed equipment and project replacements on Oct. 8.
Hannah said a sound capital plan for the county is typically about 3% of annual operations and that the proposed 2026 plan is slightly below that target. She provided fleet and market-value figures: the county enterprise fleet size was listed at 64 vehicles, and county-owned equipment with value over $20,000 had an approximate market value of $11 million (market value, not replacement cost).
Planned equipment replacements included: Buildings and Grounds lawnmower replacement; Recreation, Forestry and Parks replacement of a small dump truck and acquisition of a multi-use skid steer with a mulcher head; sheriff's sidearm rotation and replacement schedule (estimated $17,000 for rotation costs); solid-waste road tractor replacement and a potential additional trailer; and a shared equipment trailer with Jefferson County (county share approximately $23,000 if Jefferson County participates). Highway capital requests included skid steer and two plow trucks (noting an 18-month lead time for some plow equipment).
Capital projects proposed for 2026 included repaving and drainage repairs at the courthouse parking lot, an IT disaster-recovery co-op build (potentially supported by state grants), a minor website refresh and an e-procurement/contract-management tool, an upgrade to jail medical software for compliance, and several highway bridge and road projects (Wood Battle Road, Marshy Road, Pine Grove Road culvert and other design work and paving plans). Chip-seal funding and complete-streets work in Constableville were also noted.
On financing, Hannah said the capital program request is down roughly $200,000 from the prior year. The presentation proposed using the HAC account fund balance for part of the work and bringing in about $1 million in new capital-equipment funding from taxes (down from $1.2 million the prior year), but said details would be finalized during budget deliberations.
No final appropriations were adopted at this hearing; the presentation served as a draft for the 2026 capital budgeting process.
