Spillway bridge bid under budget

Union County’s project to update one of Green Valley Lake’s spillway bridges received its next step on Wednesday.

Four contractors delivered bids to Union County, all within $54,000 of each other. The winning bid, Herberger Construction from Indianola, snagged the job with a bid of $999,935.05, shaving about 16.7% off the engineer’s estimate.

The Green Valley Lake spillway helps transport overflowing water from the south end of the lake into Mitchell Marsh. The bridge over the spillway carries traffic and will see construction as Union County expands the structure.

Located along 140th Street, the project had an engineer’s estimate of $1.2 million. Construction is expected to start during the winter.

In other Union County news...

Two grading agreements were approved. These will be performed on sections of 250th Street and Kingfisher Street. Roads Superintendent Al Hysell said during the meeting he expects two more grading agreements in the future.

Hysell said the department had been hard at work last week finishing grading agreements approved in 2024. Hysell said he liked accepting about five to six grading agreements per year.

Supervisor Rick Friday was supportive of Hysell, noting how “seven years ago, [Secondary Roads] was 10 years behind” on grading agreements.

Hysell also spoke on the department’s purchase of traffic lights, used most recently for projects on Osage Street near Creston and Fillmore Street near Afton.

These automated traffic lights, which assist for in-house construction projects, were said to have “paid for itself” with assistance to the county. This contributes to keeping costs low by performing construction within the department’s capacity.

The Union County board of supervisors accepted a first quarter report from the Sheriff’s Office for their fiscal year. Details on various checking accounts not traditionally reported to the county were given to the board. This comes after a recommendation by the state auditor to begin with quarterly reports.