$2 million for road repair: State distributes money for governments to use to repair flood-damaged roads

• Casey Bradley

Casey Bradley Stutsman County auditor and chief operating officer

Talk about it

North Dakota distributed more than $2 million to local governments in Stutsman County for roads and highways, the Stutsman County Commission learned Tuesday.

“This is required to be used for extraordinary road maintenance purposes,” said Casey Bradley, county auditor/chief operating officer.

Of that money, $720,000 will go to Stutsman County, $383,632 will go to cities in Stutsman County and $930,467 will go to townships.

“This is an extraordinary gift,” said Commissioner Dale Marks.

The money is a one-time grant from the state that will be used for roads damaged by flooding in recent years.

It should help Stutsman County supply its portion of the funding for emergency road repairs.

Temporary emergency road fixes are completely funded with federal dollars, but only on the contingency that they must be followed up with permanent repairs. The county must pay for 20 percent of the cost of those permanent repairs.

The money should also help townships pay for emergency fixes for their roads. The township emergency projects are funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and townships usually pay 3 percent of the costs. Although that 3 percent per road project might only be $13,000, townships’ total annual budgets might only be $10,000.

Several townships have indicated they intend to use their state funds to pay back Stutsman County money owed from flood-related road repairs, Bradley said.

In other news Tuesday, the commission:

* approved replacing the lights in the courthouse parking lot. The new lights will be more energy-efficient, will be steel instead of aluminum and should be safer. The courthouse roof will also be replaced, which will cost approximately $70,000.

* accepted a bid for weeding and feeding lawn services from Ecolab of Grand Forks, for pest control from Humes Landscaping, Inc., of Jamestown, and for gravel crushing and screening from Wm. D. Scepaniak, Holdingford, Minn.

* voted unanimously to grant $13,000 in funds for the demonstration greenhouse project in Grasston, Minn., which is meant to be a working model of a $10 million facility to potentially be built in Jamestown. When the Endless Harvest Inc. project is complete, the $13,000 will be paid back to the county, along with the city’s $52,000 match and the Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corp.’s $75,000.

* set polling locations for the 2012 primaries and general elections. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Pingree Community Center, Pingree, Kensal Memorial Hall, Kensal, Medina Memorial Hall, Medina, and Jamestown Civic Center, Jamestown.

* agreed unanimously to write off $140,000 owed by Dakota Fresh to the JSDC, with the stipulation that no additional applications for JSDC funds will be accepted from those involved with the project. The company is bankrupt and its assets did not pay for its debts.

* accepted two grants from Homeland Security, one for $4,160 and another for $5,100, both for training in emergency management.

Sun reporter Kari Lucin can be reached at 701-952-8453

or by email at

klucin@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, stutsman county, news, local, roads