Staff writer
Now that work on one county road is finished, county commissioners and the county road superintendent turned their attention Monday to future road work.
The intersection of Nighthawk and 190th Rds. is now open, with work on Nighthawk complete, road superintendent Steve Hudson told commissioners.
On his agenda for next year is Sunflower Rd. from Marion to US-50.
Peabody public works supervisor Zac Thackston asked commissioners whether the county would agree to help his town with street work.
Hudson said county crews would be working in the Peabody area, mostly blade patching, but he didn’t want to “open a big can of worms” with other small towns asking the county to do work for them.
Peabody has money to help with the expense, but not enough to pay for all the work needed, Thackston said.
Commissioners gave road and bridge shop supervisor Tom Holub approval to sell unused equipment, including a bemes recycler, crack sealer, shoulder machine, Ventura three point flail mower and road groomer.
Hudson, commissioners, former county engineer Brice Gobel, and a representative of the Coughlin Co. discussed a proposal for repaving four miles of 230th Rd.
Commissioner Randy Dallke was skeptical. Coughlin was hired in 2021 to rebuild 20 miles of Nighthawk Rd. for $2,653,500. County residents were so unhappy with the work commissioners still hear about it, Dallke said.
Hudson said he and crew members had dug up portions of 230th Rd. and found that layers of the road in some areas were good, but in other sections, the concrete base was crumbly.
He worked on the spots, putting in new layers, and wants to see how spot fixes hold up through the winter.
“Before we put a surface on it, let’s see what we’ve got,” commission chairman Dave Mueller said.