---

WALKER - Cass County Board voted Tuesday to withdraw from making the County State Aid Highway 7 improvement project at Longville a joint project with the city.

The board also rejected bids receive at the last board meeting for the paving project on the basis the bids exceeded engineering estimates by more than the county wanted to pay.

The city of Longville also has rejected bids it received for replacing a sanitary sewer line that is planned to be located under CSAH 7 before it is repaved. Those bids also far exceeded estimates.

County Engineer David Enblom said he believes the county can obtain lower bids for the CSAH 7 paving project if he waits to bid that work with a larger group of paving projects planned for 2015 in the Remer and Outing areas.

The board awarded contracts for placing asphalt overly on CSAH 1, 25 and 49 and installing a box culvert in Mayo Creek along CSAH 1 to Anderson Brothers Construction for $3,868,671.52. Their total bid ran below engineering estimates.

The road sections to receive an overlay are located in Maple, Blind Lake and Walden Townships. Three other firms bid those projects.

Enblom reported the conversion to energy efficient lights and propane heating systems in outlying county garages has been completed. He obtained board approval Tuesday to seek bids to replace insulation and make improvements to siding and roofs on those garages.

Work on improvements to the main county garage at Walker has started and will be completed before late August, he said. That project will include energy efficient lighting, furnace upgrades, improved insulation and windows.

Still undecided is whether to make improvements or build a new garage at Remer. The county had proposed to build an addition to a newer state garage at that city, but the state eventually declined to approve an agreement.

Co-locating with the state was estimated to cost less than half the amount building a separate garage would run.

Since then, Enblom said he has discussed a proposal for the county to take over maintaining state roads in the Remer district. He is waiting for a more definitive response from the state on that proposal.

Cass commissioners declined Tuesday to adopt either of two local tax options to raise money for road improvements.

Newer state laws permit counties to levy a wheelage tax ($10 added to each vehicle license tab) and/or levy up to a half-cent sales tax to be used for a specific road improvement. The Legislature approved these options for local governments as a way to move from or add to local property taxes levied for roads.

The wheelage tax would not raise enough at an estimated $261,000 to offset the over $300,000 the county now spends from property taxes to fill the gap left by state aid highway underfunding, Enblom said Tuesday.

While adding a countywide half cent sales tax could raise an estimated $944,602, Enblom said it still would represent money largely coming from local taxpayers to support state aid roads, which are supposed to be funded by state collected road user taxes.

So far, Cass County has been able to keep current on preserving its paved roads, but two or three years down the line, that could change, Enblom told the board.

He suggested that adding more local revenue sources does not change the fact, nor make it evident to state legislators that the state is still failing to fully fund its obligation to the state aid road system.

Some counties have reached the point where their roads are deteriorated and money has to come from somewhere. Cass is not at that point yet, Enblom said.

Second publication rights after Brainerd Dispatch.

[[In-content Ad]]

---