BLUE EARTH– Faribault County Public Works director/county engineer April Wellman reviewed the proposed construction projects for 2025 with the Faribault County Commissioners when she attended the County Board meeting on Tuesday.

“The drawings have been submitted for State Aid review for the County State Aid Highway (CSAH) 17 project,” Wellman said. “The CSAH 35 project drawings and quantities are being finalized.”

Wellman proceeded to share that five bridges in the county are due to be replaced this year.

“We plan to be opening bids for those projects in March,” Wellman commented. “One of the bridges is on a county road, CR 19. The other bridges set to be replaced are on township roads. One is in Clark Township, one in Minnesota Lake Township, one in Jo Daviess Township and the final one is in Kiester Township.”

According to Wellman, there are also projects scheduled for three municipalities.

“In Wells, work is scheduled to start this spring on CSAH 60, but the railroad has been holding things up,” she stated. “Work started on CSAH 58/64 in the city of Kiester last fall and is slated to resume this spring. As for CSAH 56 in Bricelyn, the variance for the changes in parking have been approved through State Aid and the drawings are in progress.”

The final project for 2025 is the lighting of a couple of rural intersections, specifically at the intersection of CR 16 and CR 17 (470th Avenue) and at the intersection of CR 16 and CR 23 (530th Avenue).

“Scheduled maintenance projects for the year include seal coating 43.4 miles of county roads, striping projects and crack seal projects,” Wellman shared.

Wellman concluded her report by saying she was working on completing an updated five-year plan to present to the board.

Judd Schultz of the Minnesota Valley Action Council (MVAC) attended the meeting to ask the County Board to pass the amended set of Housing Redevelopment Authority (HRA) By-Laws.

“MVAC administers the Faribault County HRA under an administration contract with the county,” Schultz explained. “Recently the HRA Board met and its members amended the HRA By-Laws that hadn’t been reviewed in many years.”

The changes were minor and were approved by the County Board on a unanimous vote.

In other business, the board also:

— Approved the request by Nick Bleess of the Faribault County Sheriff’s Office to attend Mental Health Awareness for Dispatchers training.

— Voted to approve the requests of Isabella Nelson, Tammy Olsen and Kim Poole of the assessor’s office, Darrel Boeckman and Kim Poole of the auditor/treasurer’s office and Marianne Johns of the recorder’s office to attend Group Legal Description training.

— Approved Public Works employees April Wellman, Taylor Doering, John Oswald and Bryan Schaper to attend the District 7 Engineers and Technicians Conference.

— Voted to approve the requests of Faribault County Drainage employees Merissa Lore and Luke Schonborn to attend the Association of Minnesota Counties (AMC) County Drainage Conference.