Hi & Dry Road to receive long-awaited construction

A highly-requested project for Union County’s roads department is now open for bids as the county approves the plans during their regular meeting Wednesday.

A portion of Union County’s Hi & Dry Road, spanning 5.3 miles north of the southern county line of Ringgold-Union Street, will receive a concrete overlay along one of the county’s well-traveled secondary roads. The project is organized in part by the Iowa Department of Transportation.

The road is regularly used for crop transport, with half of the funding for the project provided by the state as a part of the county’s farm-to-market system and the other half as federal aid. A 6-inch layer of concrete will be placed over the existing road.

“We’re going to do a little bit of sealing and stuff to keep the water that penetrates through the concrete from going even further and then freezing and thawing and breaking it up,” Union County Engineer Christian Boehmer said.

The project’s official start brings relief to county supervisors. During Wednesday’s meeting, supervisors Rick Friday and Dennis Hopkins both said they were appreciative of the project moving along.

“I had a guy talk to me during church on Sunday,” Hopkins said. “I was good to be able to go back to church and say it’s on the agenda.”

Bid will be officially unsealed during the summer. Boehmer hopes for the project to be completed by the end of the year, describing construction as a “fairly quick process.”

In other Union County news...

The county will hold a public auction during their regular meeting on Feb. 18 for the sale of real estate in the town formerly known as Kent and the city of Lorimor. Four parcels will be up for auction, three within Kent and one with Lorimor.

Parcels 1 and 2 cover sections of plots of land north of 242nd Street between Acorn and Almond streets. Parcel 3 covers a plot on the corner of 243rd Street and Beechwood Avenue. The plot is the former location of the Kent Independent School District, closed in the 1960s.

In Lorimor, the final parcel covers a mostly wooded area to the northwest of 7th Street and Park Avenue.

Additional information on these parcels are available on the county’s website www.unioncountyiowa.gov.