BACKUS — The Cass County Highway Department hired six new employees in 2021 due to resignations, retirements and newly created positions.
That information was part of County Engineer Darrick Anderson’s annual Highway Department report Tuesday, April 19, to the Cass County Board.
Anderson said the new alignment of County State Aid Highway 70 required the shifting of state aid miles within East Gull Lake to provide a total of 1.81 state aid miles for the project.
Anderson also shared a summary of highway maintenance costs, specific maintenance projects, equipment sold and purchased and an update on construction projects in progress and when the projects will be completed. In 2021, the total regular maintenance cost for county state aid highways was $2,519,599. Of that total, $2,403,477, or 95%, came from state aid funds. The remaining $116,122, or 5%, came from county funds. Anderson did point out the cost to maintain gravel roads versus bituminous roads is between $3,000-$4,000 more per mile. Currently, the county conducts traffic counts on the roads to determine whether to pave a road or leave it as gravel.
Cass County received a total of $3,709,635 in Local Option Sales Tax during 2021 and completed approximately eight reclaim, paving, grading and surfacing projects.
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For the complete highway department annual report, go to www.co.cass.mn.us .
In other highway department business Tuesday, the county board:
Awarded the contract for a project on County Highway 32, County Highway 33, County Highway 67 and County Road 106 in the amount of $3,999,384 to Anderson Brothers Construction Co.
Awarded the contract for the county aggregate stockpile for 2022 to TNT Aggregates LLC in the amount of $106,550.
Awarded the contract in the amount of $166,870 for aggregate surfacing on county roads only to Swenson Aggregate & Construction LLC.
Approved extending the chloride application program for the 2022 season with Edwards Oil Inc. for a bid unit price of $.9797 per gallon, an estimated total contract of $365,487.
