The Freeborn County Board of Commissioners Tuesday voted 3-2 to pave a two-mile stretch of Freeborn County Road 49 that was the subject of a petition by area residents last month.

Commissioners Glen Mathiason, Dan Belshan and Mike Lee voted yes. Chris Shoff and Jim Nelson voted no. In voting yes, commissioners authorized Freeborn County Public Works Director Sue Miller to place a change order for the project and to contact the Minnesota Department of Transportation to request 2019 advance funds. To meet the local requirement for the estimated $600,000 to $800,000 cost, commissioners might need to raise the tax levy or cut from other areas of the budget.

The stretch of road in Mansfield Township intersects Freeborn County roads 2 and 4 and was paved for at least 25 years until the county turned it back to gravel a couple years ago due to a lack of funding.

In a public forum prior to the vote, Lynn Wasmoen, who lives near the portion of the road, expressed support for paving it.

“I would encourage you guys to think hard about ways of finding the funding to do this,” he said. “I’m not sure that it should have ever have been for the sake of one small section that it should have been completely re-done, that it could have been done a lot more reasonable.

“However, that’s in the rearview mirror. I think we have to move forward, and I think it’s time that we re-tar it.”

Lee suggested commissioners conduct the project in 2019, but Miller said repaving the road would likely be more expensive if the county waited until then to conduct it.

Shoff said repaving the two-mile stretch of Freeborn County Road 49 would leave commissioners on the line to fund millions of dollars in other upgrades to its road system in the midst of a transportation funding shortage.

“It’d be nice to pave it, but with $5 million a year deficit over the next 10 years and all those roads that are coming due in 10 years, I think the discussion also needs to be, ‘How do we pay for it?’” he said. “‘How do we do more with less, and how do you make data-driven decisions?’

“While I’d love to pave the road, I can’t justify it.”

Freeborn County Administrator Thomas Jensen said the county would need to have an 18 to 21 percent levy increase each of the next 10 years to address all its construction needs.

Mathiason, who represents the district the portion of road is in, said the paving project did not necessarily set a precedent for future similar projects.

Miller suggested the paving project be lumped in with 12 miles of planned surface work on Freeborn County Highway 4 from Freeborn County Road 60 to Freeborn County Highway 46. The $5.02 million project is expected to be complete in early October.

Mathiason said he has concerns about the possibility of paving the two-mile stretch if it does not take place this year.

“I can’t see doing it any other way than taking away from another project, and if we can’t do it this year, then I don’t know how we are going to fund it, because I am not in favor of spending more money to get this done, so something else is going to have suffer,” he said.

Nelson said though he understands it is difficult to have a stretch of unpaved road, there are other considerations commissioners must take into account.

“It’s a bad deal out there,” he said. “I realize that, but I hope to heck that we don’t have a 16 percent levy, because we got some gentlemen on this board that’d like to keep it at about 3 to 4 percent. Just remember that — somebody’s gotta pay for it.”

Anita Helland, who lives in the vicinity of the unpaved section of road, said, “it’s just going to make our life better all the way around,” adding repaving the road would reduce dust and be better on vehicles.

“This shouldn’t have been torn up in the first place, because it was not that bad,” she said. “They should have used the money just repairing it and used that money for some other roads.”

Wasmoen called the stretch of Freeborn County Road 49 “a community road.”

“It took real courage for them commissioners to do that,” he said. “I understand things are tight. That took courage.”

Miller said as county engineer, she wants to provide the best roads for the county but must work within the budget.

“I was very sincere with my comment to the board that this really isn’t an engineering decision, this is a political decision on how they want to prioritize a limited set of funds across all the different roads that we have to take care of,” she said. “They’re aware that this means taking money away from a project that might have 500, 1,000, 2,000 cars a day on that.

“If that’s the choice the board wants to go with for 2019, that’s more of a political and financial decision than an engineering decision.”

Less than 100 cars have been estimated to travel on Freeborn County Road 49 on a daily basis.

In other action, the board:

Presented the Rose Olmsted Award to Jacqueline Carstens in recognition of her community service.

Approved sloping ditch outlets and placing oversized rocks on the slopes of county ditches 15 and 22 east of the intersection of interstates 35 and 90.

Approved a 3.2 liquor license for Clarks Grove Golf Course.

Approved hiring a full-time Public Health Department nurse, registered nurse or social worker for long-term care.

Authorized a contract award for Freeborn County Fairgrounds rehabilitation to L.S. Black Constructors Inc. for $317,634.

Approved an agreement with the Department of Transportation for $7,582 in payment from the state for using and maintaining Freeborn County roads 14 and 22 as a detour route during construction on Interstate 90 from Minnesota Highway 13 to Freeborn County Road 46.

Appointed Steven Thompson as Freeborn County surveyor and Miller as public works director for four-year terms. During the meeting, Miller was placed under the supervision of Jensen.

Approved an I-35 joint powers agreement with the Department of Transportation for developing and implementing the I-35 corridor emergency alternate route operations guide.

Accepted a $2,023 grant from the Supplemental Federal Boating Grant Program to replace nine water buoys. The grant covers the entire cost to implement the program, including purchasing, shipping and marking the objects.

Approved an intern for Freeborn County ditch right of way recording. The intern is expected to collect documents over a three- to six-month period.

Placed Assistant Freeborn County Attorney Abigail Lambert on full-time status.

Accepted the resignation of Assistant Freeborn County Attorney Jennifer Clements and approved hiring a lawyer to replace her. Clements plans to move to Blue Earth County, where she will be a prosecutor.