Morton County road superintendent John presented the proposed 2026 highway department budget during the July 10 meeting, reviewed line items and equipment priorities, and described a recent gravel-crushing procurement. Commissioners subsequently accepted a bid from Fisher Sand and Gravel for two county pit crushing projects.

Why it matters: County road operations and planned equipment replacements (motor graders, a lowboy trailer, a tracked skid steer and pickup trucks) determine maintenance capacity for an extensive rural road system, while the approved gravel-crushing contract secures the county’s supply for road work.

Budget highlights discussed by John included keeping overtime at $100,000 (he proposed consolidating a prior separate snow-overtime line), consultant funds of $75,000 for bridge design, $250,000 a year for contract gravel hauling, and maintaining $50,000 for oil and grease. He described contractor/maintenance-assist requests tied to prairie-dog funding for specific priority bridge and road projects, and noted Harmon Lake reserve requirements connected to Dam Site 6 financing.

On equipment, John prioritized a replacement lowboy trailer (county’s current unit dated 1998), two motor graders (estimated $510,000 each with a $125,000 buyback on a leased unit, totaling about $895,000 net), one tracked skid steer (about $120,000), one snowplow truck and several pickups. He said the bids and purchases will be prioritized if funding does not cover all items.

On gravel, the county solicited bids for 80,000 cubic yards (40,000 cu yd at the Calvary/Calverta pit and 40,000 cu yd at the Hellblin/Hellbowing pit). Fisher Sand and Gravel was the low bidder: $7.95 per cubic yard at Calverta (total $318,000) and $7.15 per cubic yard at Hellblin (total $286,000). The commission approved adding a $2.50 per-yard royalty (80,000 yd × $2.50 = $200,000), which yielded a total package of $804,000; the motion to accept the bids and royalty carried on a roll-call vote.

Ending: The road budget will be refined and compiled before the next meeting; the crushing contract was approved and will be executed subject to contract paperwork and budget alignment.