FAIRMONT– On Tuesday the Martin County Board of Commissioners heard from County Engineer Kevin Peyman about the upcoming construction season, which he said might be the biggest and busiest the county has ever had. With that said, he asked for the board’s approval of a master client work order for construction inspection and administration on projects with Stonebrook Engineering, Inc. (SEI).

Peyman said that, due to employee illness, they will be going into the season without a construction manager for a good portion of the summer, if not all of the summer.

“Even when we’re full staffed, I was scrambling to figure out how we’re going to get all of these projects covered. Being short staffed, there’s no way we can get them all covered,” Peyman said.

He also added that certified people need to be on site of the projects while the contractors are working.

“It’s pretty common that a lot of people use consultants for design and inspections. We haven’t done that much in the past. I prefer to do it in-house as much as we can but I did check with multiple consultants,” Peyman said.

For the bridge work especially Peyman said someone certified will need to be on site. He said Stonebrook had done the actual designs on the bridges and that they would be a good firm to go with.

“They came up with a proposal for me, laid out as a work order. They put hourly rates for all the potential people we might need on a project,” Peyman said. “It’s an hourly rate, not a lump sum.”

He recommended that the board approve of the work order and Commissioner Billeye Rabbe made a motion to do so, which was seconded by Commissioner Joe Loughmiller. The motion passed.

Peyman also shared that the first few payments from the newly implemented transportation tax have come in. He said the first payment came in on April 10 and was $101,099. The second came in on May 8 and was $108,393.

In other business, the board:

— Recognized the retirement of Norma Padgett from the Assessor’s Office after 24 years of service.

— Was introduced to the new veteran services specialist, Mark Niss.

— Approved the following hires: Colton Wells as a part-time correctional officer, Laura Wubben as a part-time communications officer, Gustavo “Gus” Martinez as a full-time land records technician, Tyson Thate as a part-time summer water patrol deputy and Bella Hill and Hannah Siebring as part-time library pages.

— Approved changing the time of the June 16 commissioner meeting to 4 p.m. due to the 6:30 p.m. start time for the board of appeal and equalization meeting.

— Received and filed the budget allocation request from Minnesota Valley Action Council in the amount of $11,869.