BACKUS-Incoming County Engineer Darrick Anderson reported township supervisors responded favorably to two meetings he held with them in the last month to offer jointly bidding for services.
The meetings were held at Sylvan Town Hall and the land department building in Backus.
Noxious weed control spraying seemed to be the most popular at both meetings, Anderson said.
Many are concerned about spreading wild parsnip. It is a plant that causes severe itching and rash, described as much worse than poison ivy.
Anyone who does organic farming can contact their town board or the county or the spraying contractor if they have concerns about ditch spraying near their farm, he said.
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Towns can partner with the county to jointly bid and create larger quantities than individually. Often, this draws lower prices from bidders, Anderson said. This already is being done with some townships for calcium chloride summer road treatment to keep fine material from blowing off gravel roads.
Tuesday, the county board accepted a low bid of 89.3 cents per gallon or $669,750 total from Enviro-Tech Services Inc. The county will pay for $490,000 of this for its roads, with participating townships buying the balance of the contract for their roads, Assistant County Engineer Kris Lyytinen said.
The 2017 price is down from $1.02 per gallon in 2016.
Anderson told the board he may also look at contracting this service jointly with Hubbard County next year to see if it can generate additional savings for an even larger quantity.
The county board approved an amendment to its contract with Wabedo Township for installing a new bridge in that township.
Erickson Engineering had been hired to engineer the bridge and to oversee its installation. However, Erickson has exceeded the maximum the state allows (25 percent of the project cost) before reaching the installation phase.
This change will allow the county to use its own staff to oversee installation. The county can bill its services to the town bridge state aid fund to get reimbursed. This will prevent increasing Wabedo's cost share for the project.
