Board splits on adding higher-spec overlay to More High Road; change order fails, follow-up funding discussion continues

Summary

County engineer requested a construction change order (~$169k) to add a protective third coat on a major road project; the motion to fund the change from state-aid money failed after debate over allocation fairness, and the Board agreed to continue negotiations on reallocating state-aid and district funds.

County engineer Clyde Pritchard presented a construction change request to add an extra protective coat to the More High Road project at an estimated additional cost of roughly $169,000. The board discussed whether to use available state-aid funds (about $532,537 reported in the packet) to cover the change or to reserve state-aid funding for other districts' projects.

Several supervisors argued that state-aid had already funded a large portion of the More High Road work and that continuing to direct state-aid to one project would be unfair to other districts; others said the extra coat would extend the road’s service life and protect the county’s investment. After debate, a motion to approve the change using state-aid funds failed (recorded as a 3–2 vote in the transcript). Board members then discussed alternative funding allocations and later approved a revised approach to move forward on the project while exploring district contributions and remaining state-aid balances.

The meeting record shows follow-up direction: staff and engineers will refine cost impacts and funding sources and return with recommendations. No final contract amendment was executed at this meeting.