At the Lafayette County Highway Dept. meeting held Wednesday, April 13, 2017, chair Dwayne Larson called the meeting to order at 8:00 a.m.
    A two acre parcel of land, owned by the Highway Department, located in the Town of Wiota on the south side of Sand Road just to the east of Woodford park went up for sale through sealed bids. Three bids were received for the parcel and were open and read aloud by Tom Jean, Lafayette County Highway Commissioner. The bids: Delane E. Walker-Potter - $1,300; Ed Stampfli - $2,100 and Kalen Marsden - $3,150.
    Jean stated a 26’x32’ graveyard was said to exist in the general area and could be located on the two acre property. A motion to except the high bid, contingent on clearing up the graveyard issue and having a clear title for the property. Approved. Marsden stated the cemetery was not on the land.
    Mike Statz from MSA Professional Services was on hand and talked about two bridges that MSA will be designing and will be reconstructed in 2018. The projects involved are the Bethel Grove Road bridge and County I bridge. The bidding will go out November 2017. Statz and the committee discussed the state road tax situation in Wisconsin; Wind Farm project; Summer Highway Conference in June.
    Tom Boguszewski from AECOM of Madison was next. AECOM designed the County O bridge which is under construction right now. Jean stated the construction company, Radke Construction, is making really good time on the bridge and passed out photos (see photo adjacent) to show the progress. The beams have already been put down. Boguszewski thanked the committee for the work and looked forward to any projects in the future.
Projects Updates
    •The wall reconstruction on Hwy. 81 running past the Lafayette County Fairgrounds will begin Aug. 15, 2017. The wall is facing south and is below the road surface.
    •County O bridge, north of Shullsburg. Jean again stated the project is flying through. Anticipates the road will reopen by the first or second week in June.
    •A road agreement has been signed with Quilt Block Wind Farm. The agreement states that after the wind towers are finished being built, the roads the company uses will be brought back up to current conditions. This also includes County Shop Road, as the concrete for the project was awarded to BARD. Jean stated 25,000 yards of concrete will be coming out of the Darlington plant, which is located on County Shop Road. At roughly ten yards a load, that multiplies out to 2,500 truck loads of concrete for the project. A half a million yards of gravel will be taken out of Lange quarry for the project and Jean believes Lange Road will break down during the project. Also, the county received $2 million bond from Quilt Bock Wind Farm.
    •Hwy. 78 from Wiota to Argyle will be closed to local traffic only starting Monday, April 17, 2017 through October 2017. A complete mill and overlay of the entire highway, replacement of all the culverts, replacement of Cherry Creek bridge (starting June 15), Spore Road intersection will get cut down twelve feet. General Contractor is Iverson Construction of Kieler; McGuire of Monroe will do the dirt work; Concrete Structures, Inc. of Janesville will be doing the bridge work.
    •Lafayette County Highway crews working on shoulders, bridge washing; crack filling starts next week; culverts.
    •Working on land acquisition for four bridges to be reconstructed in 2018.
Equipment
    •New mower is in, but not delivered; shop truck is not in and will have to go to Sun Valley Fabrication to build the box; have prices on a replacement pick-up truck that will be acted on at the next meeting; trailer for Bobcat is not in yet; Monroe Truck of Monroe is behind.
    In other business:
    •Overtime report –$3,022 and comp time $2,127.
    •Approved March vouchers for $90,000. Including reimbursable $20,000 for bike trail work.