The Richland County Public Works Committee reviewed and approved this month’s bills and advanced a resolution to the county board to reimburse several townships for culvert replacement work.

Key financials and payments
The committee reported this month’s bills totaled $502,636.77. Large items called out in the meeting included a $46,850 payment to Westbrook for bridge inspections (staff said that portion is reimbursed 100% by the State of Wisconsin’s 6‑to‑20‑foot program), a $27,840 payment to First Source Bank related to a Belco excavator lease, and an $11,005.81 charge for county road data recovery tied to the excavation work on a project site. Committee members identified the first payment to Larson Construction for the campus bridge (reported in the meeting as roughly $130,070.06) and noted about $387,000 remains to be paid on that project before completion.

Culvert reimbursements forwarded to county board
The committee approved a resolution to forward township reimbursement requests to the county board. The reimbursement requests named in the resolution were:
- Town of Bloom (Tar Hollow): $22,633.76
- Town of Ithaca (Howell Hollow): $6,001.79 and $5,497.27 (two separate items)
- Town of Marshall and Mary Hill: $4,654.15
The total to be forwarded for reimbursement to townships was $38,964.74. The committee approved the resolution to go to the county board for final action; meeting records did not include individual vote tallies for the committee’s approval.

Project updates and public outreach
Committee staff said the campus bridge final construction date was targeted for completion by June 17; a final walkthrough with the inspecting engineer (Westbrook) will ensure punch‑list items are closed. For a separate road project (pre‑construction meeting held the prior day), staff said construction was scheduled to start the first week in June (with a possible May 27 mobilization), final completion set for Oct. 31, weekly virtual progress meetings on Mondays at 1 p.m., and a public involvement meeting scheduled for May 20 at 6 p.m. at the Old Orien Town Hall. Staff said Frontier (a utility) had delayed relocations but was expected to be on site the following Monday so construction could proceed.

Ending
The committee approved the monthly bills and forwarded the culvert reimbursement resolution to the county board for final approval. Staff will continue weekly progress meetings on active projects and return with updates as work proceeds.