BLUE EARTH– The Faribault County Board of Commissioners received two pieces of good news when they met for their first meeting of the month on Tuesday.

First, they learned the total cost for the pavement rehabilitation projects scheduled for this year came in lower than the engineer’s estimate.

“We received two bids,” Taylor Doering of the Public Works Department, told the board. “The engineer’s estimate came in slightly over $8.1 million. One bid, from Minnesota Paving and Materials, came in at $9.4 million while Ulland Brothers submitted a bid of $7.5 million.”

Board members voted to accept the bid from Ulland Brothers.

The pavement projects include resurfacing parts of County Road 11, CR 17, CR 23 and CR 51.

The commissioners inquired about the expected completion dates for the project.

The answer to that question provided more good news.

“They are all scheduled to be completed by July 1,” Public Works employee Dennis Wick answered.

While happy to hear about the earlier-than-expected completion date, the board asked Wick to be sure the roads are maintained in the meantime, especially being active in managing the dust control when the weather turns warmer.

Former county engineer Mark Daly attended the meeting to discuss ideas with the commissioners about attracting a new engineer to replace him, as he retired in December of last year.

“Mark told us last year we would have to raise the base salary we were offering to be able to hire an engineer,” board chairman Bill Groskreutz said.

Daly suggested hiring an interim engineer for now.

“You need to have a licensed engineer on staff to be able to receive state funds,” Daly reminded the board. “I would recommend you hire a person just for the engineering duties and distribute some of the other duties I had, like overseeing the county parks, to someone else.”

In other business:

— The board approved the request of Veteran Services Officer Jenna Schmidtke to attend the National Association of County Veterans Service Officers. The cost of attending the conference is paid for by the Minnesota State Association of Veterans Service Officers.

— Approval was given for Bryce Werner and Jade Warmka to attend the ATSSA (American Traffic Safety Services Association) ‘How To’ Conference.