By David Fenker
david@nmpaper.com
WABASH COUNTY – County Road 1100 North may soon be getting a 3,700-foot facelift.
The Wabash County Commissioners approved a preliminary contract of $257,430 for the design services of Indianapolis-based civil engineering firm Butler, Fairman and Seufert, Inc., for the project at their Monday, Sept. 18, stated meeting.
“It’s a project that we’ve been looking at for some time,” Chairman Scott Givens said.
Accoring to County Highway Superintendent John Martin, the project is estimated to cost slightly more than $1 million, most of which the commissioners hope will be covered by an Indiana Department of Transportation Community Crossings grant.
The rest will come from the county’s LOWIT fund refund monies, of which 75 percent was designated for use by the Highway Department, according to Martin.
“[1100 North] starts south of Manchester, and it runs over to their industrial park that they’re working on, as well as to Strauss Feeds. With all the semi traffic, the road has become very crowned. We’re trying to level the road out and build it up to handle the truck traffic that’s traveling on it. They also travel on it to go into Manchester,” he said.
“We don’t have a timetable at this time. We’re just at the very beginning stages right now; by signing the engineering contract, we’re just getting started.
Givens noted that the idea is similar to what the county did with 800 North for POET Biorefining.
Martin also reported that the highway department has completed 62 miles of chip and seal repair on county roads, and that there are fewer than 20 miles left to be done.
Additional news from the meeting included a $4,400 repair bill and the weekly jail report.
Sheriff Bob Land asked the commissioners to cover the repair bill for the jail.
“We had four cell doors that needed repairs, and some of those repairs included special parts. So, I have an invoice from Southern Folger Detention out of San Antonio for a total amount of $4,410,” Land said.
He asked that the commissioners cover the cell door repairs, as his department recently had to replace two windows in the jail.
Land also delivered the weekly jail report, saying that there were 84 inmates in the Wabash County Jail, with an additional 48 being held in Miami County and four in Elkhart County.