FAIRMONT — Martin County commissioners heard from County Engineer Kevin Peyman at a work session Tuesday. He discussed the proposed 2020 budget, about which the board will make decisions in the near future.

The 2020 road and bridge levy request currently sits at $2.4 million, a $156,000 increase over the $2.3 million levy for 2019.

“This is the first year since 2014 that we’ve had an increase in numerous years,” Peyman noted. “What I do is figure out our total expenditures, and then I find out what our revenue is going to be, and whatever the difference in that is what my budget request is.”

As far as the overall highway budget, there are a couple of big changes coming but nothing unexpected, according to Peyman. Most increases are due to an increased workload, thanks to weather-related incidents.

“With sealcoat oil, the quantity is not changing, but the oil prices have been creeping back up again,” he said.

One big proposed expenditure increase is for gravel, from $35,000 in 2019 to $65,000 for 2020.

“The reasons for that are obvious; we did a lot of rock this year and I anticipate we’re going to need more,” he said. “Even after what we’ve put down this last month, I’m not positive that’s high enough but it is an increase in what we’ve been spending.

“The one other thing I want to comment on is that about five or six years ago we started putting money into bringing in better quality gravel, because a lot of our local quality gravel is not very good, but it’s cheap. Our local gravel is somewhere in the $5 per ton range, and when we get material we have to truck in, it’s in the $15 to $16 per ton range. So I left that the same, but if our gravel use continues like it is, that may be something we have to talk about in future years.”

Peyman also noted the proposed increase in maintenance overtime, from $40,000 to $50,000, as well as a large $40,000 increase for tiling and ditch work.

“With that, we’ve been going over on that with the amount of water we’ve had,” he said. “We’ve been trying to fix some of the bad spots more aggressively as they’ve been causing us problems.”

Peyman also said 2020 is going to be a heavy construction year, with work being done on County Road 54 from County Road 9 to Ormsby, as well as on County Road 52. The cost for those projects is estimated at $8.8 million.

Commissioners also dealt with some general business Tuesday, approving the hiring of Luis Figueroa as a full-time deputy, to replace the position left vacant when deputy Chris Gerhardt was chosen to become the school resource officer at Granada-Huntley-East Chain.

The board also approved hiring Miranda Parrott as a full-time corrections officer.

In addition, the board approved a $300,000 purchase of property at 1200 N. State St. in Fairmont for use as a Martin County garage.