The Sherburne County Board voted Tuesday, 3-1 to reject all bids regarding bituminous overlays on Co. Rds. 6, 8 and 72, plus culvert modification on Co. Rd. 16.

 

Over the past month, the board has debated how to deal with the composition of shoulders, connecting the road to driveways, and whether to continue the practice of decreasing the width of the bituminous surface on overlay projects.

 

At a workshop two weeks ago, a number of residents, particularly farmers, complained that the county was making it difficult to drive farm equipment on the roads without going over the center line and affecting oncoming vehicles.

 

Public Works Director John Menter said in oder to keep the width of the roads the same, it would require more engineering and grading of the outside slope at an additional cost of about $100,000 per mile.

 

Menter said planning and design would have to be done at least a year in advance and before the board set the budget.

 

All those discussions took place after bids were received last month for the Co. Rd. 6, 8 and 72 overlay project. The board tabled a decision to award that bid while they debated establishing policies to follow on an overlay project.

 

Tuesday, Commissioner Ewald Petersen made a motion to reject the bids. Commissioner Bruce Anderson seconded the motion. Anderson said one of the reasons was the absence of Commissioner Felxi Schmiesing, who was not present because of an illness. Much of the work on the project is in his district.

 

“Commissioner Schmiesing isn’t here today and he wanted to be part of this dicussion,” he said.

 

Petersen, Anderson and Commissioner John Riebel voted in favor of the motion. Commissioner Rachel Leonard voted against.

 

Petersen also made a motion to table a vote on setting new policies for shouldering and driveways. That vote was the same, 3-1.

 

After the vote Administrator Steve Taylor said the board had two options. 

 

“We could re-bid it later this year or it’s going to be pushed back to next year or the year after,” he said. “We looked at changing it so the roads wouldn’t be narrower. If we did that we’d have to re-bid it anyway because it’s a substatial change.”

 

The board also approved requesting a speed zone study from MnDOT on Co. Rd. 66.