Staff from Faribault County’s Public Works Department worked last week on removing the old, uneven concrete from the shelter located at Pihls Park. The next step in the process is to obtain bids for pouring a new floor in the structure.

With very few items on their agenda, the Faribault County Board of Commissioners’ meeting on March 3 was much shorter than usual.

One of the items for the board to consider was the approval of a bid for the 2026 bridge projects.

Taylor Doering and Denny Wick of the Public Works Department were at the meeting to discuss the different bids.

“We received four bids,” Doering told the board. “The low bid was from R & E Enterprises, in the amount of $1,977,469. It came in about $49,000 under the engineer’s estimate and almost $100,000 less than what was budgeted.”

The other three companies who had submitted bids were Midwest Contracting, LLC., Minnowa Construction, Inc. and Jensen Excavating and Trucking.

Doering told the commissioners the bid was for five bridges to be replaced.

“They all will be box culverts,” she explained. “Some will be double-box and some will be single.”

The board approved the bid.

“I also wanted to share that we have been notified that the county will be receiving $477,725 in rumble strip funding,” Doering said. “This is 100 percent Federal funding to edge rumble strips. Our initial request was to do 40 miles and the funding we will receive is supposed to cover all of that. We are not scheduled to receive the funds until 2030.”

Doering also noted that the Public Works Department had purchased a 2023 F-150 from the Sheriff’s Department for $26,000.

“We had only budgeted $18,000 to purchase a pickup,” Doering noted. “However, we had money available from the trade-in of other equipment to help fund the purchase.”

Earlier in the meeting, chairman Bruce Anderson had reported that the county was working on a bid to replace the concrete floor in the shelter at Pihl’s Park and Wick had an update on the situation.

“Our crews are actually at the park today,” Wick said. “They are working on removing the old concrete from the shelter.”

The other item of business on the agenda involved improving and updating the Training Request Forms and the Employee Training and Travel Policy.

“Faribault County utilizes a Training Request Form for conferences, training, workshops and travel requiring County Board approval,” Human Resources director Amanda Shoff explained. “While board approval is required, the current form does not clearly document formal board action via a yes/no approval indicator, board chair signature, or meeting date.”

Shoff said updating the form will take care of a number of issues.

“It will enhance transparency, documentation consistency and internal controls – particularly as they relate to audit compliance and payment authorization,” Shoff commented. “This will ensure clear documentation of County Board action, improve tracking and visibility for the training requester, provide a clear separation between approval and payment processing and also provide a stronger internal control process for the auditor/treasurer’s office.”

The updates were approved by a unanimous vote.

Earlier in the meeting, during the public comment time, Heidi Schutt of the Blue Earth Community Library told the commissioners about the Faribault County Community Reads program.

“We are in the 11th year of the program,” Schutt remarked. “It started in Blue Earth and is now a county-wide program.”

She also had information about this year’s reading selection.

“We are featuring a book by Amy Lynn Green titled “The Codebreaker’s Daughter,” Schutt said. “Green will be at Muir Library in Winnebago at 2 p.m. and at the Wells Public Library at 6:30 p.m. on April 23.”

Schutt also shared that Green is a finalist in the Minnesota Book Awards.

The board also:

• Scheduled a County Board work session for 9 a.m., March 30. The purpose of the work session is to discuss the 2023 and 2024 financial audits.

• Approved the training request of Jennifer Luhmann of the Public Works Department to attend the MCHAA (Minnesota County Highway Accountants Association) Conference.

• Approved the request of County Recorder Kelly Hendrickson to attend the Association of Minnesota Counties Leadership Summit.