Rawlins County Road & Bridge schedules repairs, plans BigIron auction and considers local dozer contractor

Rawlins County Road & Bridge staff briefed the Board of Commissioners March 28 on recent repairs, planned surplus equipment sales and small contracted work to fix a spring-damaged area southeast of town.

Doug Reinert thanked crews and neighbors for work on a residential access road and said a washboard cutter made notable improvement when moisture was present. Mark Loop told commissioners the HRRR project paperwork and a Code of Conduct for a Klein bridge project had been signed, and reported three signs on the east side of Highway 25 had been pushed over. Loop said he will inspect roads near the Cheyenne County line for snow-related damage and provided updates on rocked roads.

Loop reported a local operator with a dozer offered to fix a remaining problem spot southeast of town and said the operator believes the patch could be fixed in about four hours at $175 per hour. County staff discussed drafting a brief agreement, proposed to be written by Wayne Lanning, limiting the county obligation to up to five hours at $175 per hour and allowing the county to finish the repair if the work is not completed within that time.

Loop also said Road & Bridge will auction several items on BigIron April 10, 2024; a generator slated for auction will instead be repaired before sale. The department discussed replacing an undersized culvert with a box culvert or larger pipe to improve drainage; no formal procurement for that replacement was recorded in the minutes.

The board entered a short executive session earlier in the meeting for non-elected personnel and later returned with no action recorded.