County commissioner urges caution on $30 million Richmond detour project, cites missing permits and tight timetable

A county commissioner told the Brown County Commission on Tuesday that the Richmond detour and a related $30 million project are moving forward on a compressed timeline and raised concerns about safety and financial exposure. The commissioner said the contractor had been identified only about five weeks earlier and that state discharge permits allowing water pumping from the lake had not been issued.

The comments came during a lengthy highway department update delivered by Highway Superintendent Dirk Rogers and exchanges among commissioners about detour impacts, constituent complaints and sequencing of county road work. "This is a $30 million project that they've basically had the contractor identified for 5 weeks. I do not think this is something that we need to be taking a lot of risk on," the county commissioner said, urging the county to "pump the brakes" and monitor the situation.

Why it matters: the detour and construction affect local travel patterns, safety on township roads and the county's road-maintenance budget. Commissioners said they have added approximately six miles to the county system this year and that detour traffic has increased pressure on nearby roads. Residents have contacted the commission with strong reactions to traffic changes, they said.

Rogers described operational details of the project and related maintenance work: Northwestern Energy right-of-way work to place lines underground near the Central school area (approved earlier in the meeting), requests for dust-proofing, stop-sign installation on 126 Street and an upcoming schedule of chip-seal and overlay work. He told commissioners the contractor could not legally begin pumping water until the state's discharge permit was issued and said staff were tracking that permit closely.

Commissioners and staff emphasized monitoring and incremental responses to safety complaints rather than large, immediate expenditures. "We'll monitor the situation and we will react to make it as safe and as appropriate as possible within reason," one commissioner said. Rogers added that operations would try to minimize disruption by scheduling oil application and lifts across multiple days and by working primarily between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

The highway office also outlined plans for upcoming projects: preconstruction work on Road 16, a detour for the Sand Lake bridge, and an overlay of about 3.7 miles. Rogers said the department plans to "leap frog" repairs to connect patches of road and will use the fairgrounds for training activities before applying similar techniques on more critical routes.

Next steps: commissioners asked staff to continue tracking permits and contractor progress, to communicate with impacted residents and to report back on any safety or budget impacts. No formal direction to halt work was recorded and no formal vote changed the project's status during the meeting.