County lets highway

department borrow ahead

Cost overruns

on projects

necessitate action

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Brown County commissioners decided Tuesday to allow the Brown County Highway Department to borrow an estimated $300,000 ahead of its 2004 budget in order to pay for what were described as cost overruns on highway projects.

The money represents about one-third of the department's annual budget for 2004, which is currently at $1.6 million.

County documents indicate that the department expected its regular construction fund balance to be nearly empty at the beginning of the year after paying for regular construction projects.

But because of increases in costs, the county's state highway aid fund doesn't have enough money to pay contractors. Furthermore, because the projects aren't completed and rights-of-way issues aren't resolved, the final costs aren't clear.

Stevens estimated that the borrowed money is the most that the highway department would need in order to cover the increased costs. Any unneeded money won't be transferred into the department's account, Stevens said.

Commissioner Andrew Lochner said he was surprised at the overruns and stated that the amount of money the department was asking for represented a third of its 2004 budget.

Stevens explained that the actual costs were more than the Highway Department expected.

"I'm not saying we need $300,000. That's just guesswork. But the rights-of-way on County Road 24 are not settled and we want to make sure we have enough," Stevens replied.

He later explained during discussion about a related item that the overruns in at least one case were because of soft soil that was discovered underneath roads while crews were paving this spring, which can cause a road to collapse when vehicles drive over it. Crews were working on resurfacing CSAH 2 from the southern county line to U.S. Highway 14 and CSAH 23 in between CSAHs 2 and 3. The original contract for the work said it should have cost about $800,000, but the actual cost was a little over $1 million.

Stevens said the soil problem was reviewed by a MnDOT engineer and the decision was made to patch the roads. There were also "miscalculations in the original estimate," Stevens said.

"Was this human error? or ..." began Wellner.

"It was a simple mistake," Stevens said.

Wellner said he was "very disappointed" that the projects were over budget.

"The nice thing is that it doesn't cost the county any more than is out there," Stevens replied.

"Yes, but these people ought to know how to do their jobs," Wellner replied.

Commissioner Charles Guggisberg offered his support for making the final payment on the projects, saying the contractor deserved to be paid.

Earlier in the day, the board voted to allow a redetermination of benefits and to appoint a team of people to inspect County Ditch 18. County ditch inspector Jim Wendland said some landowners are outletting into the ditch without paying for it. Most of the landowners have petitioned to use the ditch as an outlet. The petition has been in the process of being prepared for almost one year with little or no county action.

The board voted to proclaim this week as Family Child Care Provider Week after a short presentation from Michelle Gag, the president of the Brown County Child Care Provider Association, and Barb LaFramboise, Brown County Child Care Provider of the Year for 2003.