County engineer updates board on Mason City repairs and proposes using auction proceeds for road reclaimer

Brandon updated the board on progress at Mason City and county equipment status. He said a door repair at a Mason City building is expected to begin in the second week of January and that internal demolition is underway at an adjacent older building. He said the county expects an external demolition permit from the DNR by Dec. 22, allowing external demolition to proceed.

On county equipment, Brandon reported that two items remain at auction — a road grader and a bulldozer (the bulldozer had a transmission problem) — and that combined proceeds from those and current auction items amount to roughly $30,000. He proposed amending the budget later in the year to apply those proceeds toward purchasing a road reclaimer, which he estimated would cost about $23,000. "So after the auction fees are deducted, even if we don't get any more bids on the two pieces of equipment, we'll get roughly 26,000. So it'll pretty much exactly cover the cost," Brandon said.

Board members asked follow-up questions about the equipment, recent trade-ins and whether the county had received the two new trucks (Brandon said the trucks are ordered and trade-ins yielded about $8,000 and $5,000). Brandon also described plans for short-span bridge replacements around Rockville in the spring and noted the county is monitoring safety grant award decisions expected in early January.

No final vote to amend the budget or purchase the reclaimer was recorded in the transcript; Brandon presented the proposal for the board’s consideration and said he would bring further details to a future meeting.