Supervisors approve plans and specs for Conrad bridge

Grundy County Engineer Gary Mauer received approval for the plans and specifications of a bridge just west of Conrad during a brief Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday morning.
 
The board voted 4-0 (Chuck Bakker was absent) to approve the plans, and a DOT letting date of June 20 was set. The county has budgeted $636,000 for the project, and Calhoun Burns, an engineering consulting firm based in West Des Moines, has estimated it at $735,000.
 
Funding for the bridge, closed since 2013 due to storm damages, has been a point of contention between the city of Conrad and the county: the city qualified for a Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) grant to cover 80 percent of the cost to replace it, and the county requested a 50-50 split for the remainder of the expense (approximately $142,000). The city balked, citing rare resident usage and the fact that it was the entity that qualified for the grant as its primary reasons, and though Mauer predicted three years ago that it could be finished by 2015, repairs have still yet to commence.
 
Read more in this week's Grundy Register.