County staff told supervisors they plan to resubmit a multi-county BUILD grant package and that the county would pay $3,000 to a consultant, Kimberly Horn, to assist the resubmission. Speaker 6 said the group will consider reapplying for the 2026 BUILD NOFO and will place a formal reapplication vote on the next board agenda.

"We will resubmit. We will have to pay $3,000 out of pocket to Kimberly Horn to reapply for the 2026 build grant," Speaker 6 said, and added that the package includes multiple counties and that details remain subject to the grants committee guidance.

On county infrastructure, the county engineer reported bids for Bridge 307 came in at about $1,470,000, roughly 15% above the engineer's probable cost of $1.27 million. Staff said that because the bid exceeds the estimate by more than 10%, the board has the option to reject all bids and will place the item on the January agenda to accept or reject the low bidder after review of the itemized bid tabs expected to be released within days.

Speaker 6 said the bridge funds come from the highway bridge program and that the county has caps that may affect scheduling other projects if it accepts the higher bid. The Pleasant View bridge letting was pushed back previously, easing urgency on that project, but staff said the closed bridge remains a connectivity concern.

What the board will do: supervisors directed staff to place the bid-acceptance/rejection item on the January agenda and to provide the itemized bid tabs and DOT coordination notes to inform a formal decision.

Provenance: reporter and engineering figures were provided during the meeting; no formal contract award was approved at this session.