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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOctober Agenda Details-T-m� GRANT COUNTY HIGHWAY COMMISSION Jon Knautz, Commissioner Chair Gary Northouse, Vice Chair Pat Schroeder, Secretary Diane Nelson, Roger Guthrie, Lester Jantzen • 1011 North Adams Street GRANT COUNT' Office: WI 53813 HIGHWAY Office: 608-723-2595—Shop 608-723-2537 DEPAI{TMIIVT October 16, 2025 Highway Committee Meeting: Items to be Discussed October 9, 2025 The Grant County Highway Committee will call the meeting to order on Thursday, October 16, 2025, at 9:00 am, at the Highway Department Shop, 1011 North Adams Street, Lancaster, Wisconsin. This meeting will also be held virtually via zoom for anyone unable to attend. The zoom address can be found on the Grant County website. Call to Order Confirmation of Open Meeting Law Adoption of Agenda Approval of Minutes Approval of Bills Items from the Office: The August 2025, requisition, has not been submitted to the state due to the fact that the DOT has decided to move some of the recent flood damage accounts into different accounts. Also, the DOT has reclassified some of our machinery and that process is not fully implemented by the DOT. The September requisition will be discussed at next months meeting. Our county core accounts thru the end of September, 2025, as entered in Tyler Munis software: Thru September, the Highway Department has received 72% of its budgeted revenues. This amount includes the property tax levy and the insurance recovery for the Platteville salt shed roof. We have used 62% of our budgeted core expenses. Our core expense accounts are as follows: Equipment Acquisition----------------------------- 93% used a.) Yet to purchase in 2025 is a supervisor pick-up and finish work on EMS squad Capital Outlay -Buildings-------------------------- 5% used a.) does not include purchase or dirt -work for Patch Grove salt shed County Routine Maintenance---------------------- 70% used County Snow & Ice--------------------------------- 43% used County Road Construction------------------------ 68% used a.) 1900 feet of CTH A, needs to be paved River Access ------------------------------------------ 130% used a.) received 93% of budgeted boat landing fees b.) received 99% of budgeted River Access grant c.) Two Highway Department employees working this year, did not hire temporary help. will have a reduction in the routine maintenance and county construction accounts, due to this move Jon and Donna will discuss with committee changes that have been made to our initial 2026 budget in order to meet 2026 budget goals set by our administrator. State Superintendent Items: • State crews have been receiving state salt at various locations. Receiving salt entails our guys signing off on each load as it arrives and then dumping it onto a state owned conveyor, with an enloader, that piles it into our sheds By using the conveyor we are able to pile salt very high, making the salt shed as efficient as possible. They have been using a state owned "mud jacking" pump that is used to raise concrete slabs. With this piece of equipment, that have been able to make improvements to a number of dips in roadways on STH 61 north of Fennimore, STH 18 at the slough bridge approach, and also a couple of locations on STH 151. They will begin mowing state roadsides, October 131h. Steve will give details County Superintendent Items: • County crews have also been receiving salt. The county has already filled the two large sheds it shares with the state (Platteville & Dickeyville) with last season's salt. We also share salt with the state at Fennimore and soon at Patch Grove. These sheds are too small to use the conveyor, so all salt received at these sheds are pushed in by endloader's. County crews have also been cleaning out ditches on CTH D north. They have been using a cross conveyor unit mounted to the back of a tandem axle section truck, to add gravel to low spots on shoulders, on CTY G as well as CTY M. They have finished removing the boat dock at Wyalusing. The other dock we own is in Jamestown Township (O Learies). This dock will stay in place thru-out the winter time as it would take special equipment, which we do not own, to remove it. County crews have also been doing some culvert work and debri removal for Hazel Green, Marion, and North Lancaster Townships. Trenton will give more detail at our meeting. Shop Foreman Items: • EMS shop service squad is now being used. Nothing but positive reviews from our employees thus far. • Our parts person (Steve Bowden) has been distributing the filters needed for an annual change, to our employees. This takes a bit of effort on his part, as all filters need to be correctly entered into our computer systems. He also needs to insure each piece of equipment is getting the correct filter. Seems like it should be an easy task, but it reality, it is a big process. When we have our new shop, this will all be done at the new facility. • Mechanics continue to perform preventive maintenance reviews on each of our section trucks, to assure they are ready for winter use. Our fabricator has been making small repairs to our trailers and will soon begin working on removing our state owned "crash -cushion" from one truck, and fitting it to the back of a semi -tractor that has recently been taken out of service due to rear end issue. Our plan is to make repairs to the rear end of the truck, and then use it as our traffic attenuator, hopefully for years to come. The truck the attenuator is currently mounted on, is in very poor condition. • We will open bids for two, tandem axle chassis and snow equipment, at this meeting. We have solicited quotes from Mack, International, Western Star, Kenworth, Freightliner and Peterbilt for the chassis, and Henderson, Link Hydraulics, Monroe, Falls Equipment, Phoenix Body Works, for the snow equipment. • Jason and Jon will discuss with committee details of a soft -ware program we would like to possibly switch to, in order to better track machine maintenance activities. Engineering Report: • Travis will update Patch Grove salt shed progression. • Travis will discuss with committee a DOT reclassification of a number of our state, county and municipal roadways. Commissioners Report: 0 Training Update: o Grant County has hosted the hosted Winter Tech Talk training at S.W. Tech in Fennimore. The training was attended by 14 different county highway departments, thru-out the state as well as a number of DOT reps. Wi DOT conducted the majority of the training. Grant County Highway Department provided a couple of fully equipped brining trucks as well as their operators, to answer questions regarding Grant Counties, brining operation. Grant County also made arrangements to have DOT representatives from the State of Iowa, conduct a presentation to show what the state of Iowa does regarding salt brining. The training was funded fully by Wi Dot. The training went well as I believe a lot of info was shared. o Grant County also played host for the Wi Dot bi-annual, commissioners training. The training was held at U.W. Platteville campus. It was attended by many highway commissioners thru-out the state. The road -builders agreement with the DOT, machinery management reclassifications, DOT issues regarding Indian Tribal lands, were some of the topics discussed at this training. Our office manager, Donna, was introduced as a member of a new committee within the WCHA. The new committee, named FAC (Financial Advisory Committee) is charged with finding ways to help new office personal, become efficient when working with the various programs needed to properly conduct highway accounting. This training was fully funded by the WCHA. o Wisconsin Salt Wise will be conducting a "Winter Tech Talk" at the Youth & Ag building on October 31rst. All highway employees will attend. An invitation has been sent to all local municipalities in Grant County as well as our local state representatives. As of today, there has not been a large number of confirmations sent back. None of the state representatives have confirmed, as of yet. After the presentation, highway employees will come back to our shop, take part in a Grant County Highway Department provided lunch, and then continue training with Force America reps that will be present, as well as training provided by the Highway Department pertaining to proper flagging procedures. This training is required by the DOT. The lunch that will be provided is a part of the Highway Department's Christmas parry to our employees. The truck rodeo that is usually part of this training will not take place this year. • Facility Report: o The CTH A project west of Lancaster, is still a bit behind schedule, two to three weeks according to Jordan Fure, Delta 3 engineering. Jordan states that it should be sub - graded and rocked next week and should be ready for paving at that point. He is not sure of Mathy's timetable at this point. o We working with corporate counsel and Castle Rock Township to finish up and get signed the working contract to plow snow for Castle Rock Town this winter. We will be meeting with Brian Johnsrud, Castle Rock Chairman, and our staff, for a tour of the township next week. • Employee Update: o The Highway Commissioner's last day of work is set for January 9, 2026. A formal letter of retirement, by the commissioner, has been sent to our administrator. o We are presently at full strength. • Set Time and Date for Next Scheduled Meeting: November 20, 2025, would be the next meeting date. 0 Adjourn: