By Doug Barrett
May 19, 2021 | 8:45 AM
A survey of highway culverts throughout Grand Forks County suggests over 31% are in need of repair and replacement. The analysis looked at over 2500 culverts on the county road system. Highway Engineer Nick West says the estimated cost to rehab the failing structures is around $25 million dollars.
West says only 80% of the culverts on the county road system have been inventoried to date. “The township roads make up the majority of the roads in the county. The county is responsible for the larger culverts and all the bridges on the township roads. We haven’t even started to look at those.”
I’ve often debated which is worse – too much rain or not enough – and have yet to come up with a satisfactory answer. Both are bad in their own ways, and we’ve experienced both extremes in the past couple of years.
A happy medium would be nice, for a change.
The light rain falling outside my kitchen window as I write this – and the prospect of more in the next few days – will hopefully bring much-needed relief.
Just so the rain knows when to quit.
On the “too much” side of the coin, I think back to that Saturday morning in late September 2019. Five inches of rain had fallen during the night – I slept through it – and I woke up to a basement floor covered with water that seeped back in as fast as I could wet-vac and squeegee it up. That fall was a soggy mess. Any thoughts of fall walleye fishing on my favorite rivers were washed away in a torrent of muddy, debris-filled water, and sump pumps ran until the onset of subzero weather in early November began freezin
By Doug Barrett
Apr 7, 2021 9:00 AM
Bridge funding is on the minds of government leaders on both sides of the river. The Grand Forks County Commission on Tuesday agreed to work with the MPO on a federal grant to help pay for a bridge at Merrifield Road. The deadline to submit the funding application is April 16
th.
County Engineer Nick West says there is a catch with federal funding – it requires a local share. He says the latest bridge estimate is $31 million dollars.
In East Grand Forks the city council last night (Tuesday) approved a resolution requesting federal funding for a
By Doug Barrett
Apr 7, 2021 8:52 AM
The Grand Forks County Commission took action Tuesday to extend the Fire Emergency Declaration and a burn ban until further notice. Drought conditions have created a high fire danger index throughout much of the region. The action extends the ban signed seven days ago that expired on Monday. Emergency Management Director Kari Geolz says the move coincides with a statewide emergency signed by the governor on April 1st. The order includes recreational fires in the city of Grand Forks. The ban will be in place until conditions improve.
Grand Forks County inmates complain about safety during COVID-19 outbreak
After nearly half the population of the Grand Forks County jail tested positive for COVID-19, a Fargo attorney says he received more than 120 calls from Grand Forks inmates and jail staff claiming the facility failed to protect them from the virus. 12:55 pm, Mar. 7, 2021 ×
The Grand Forks County Correctional Center, photographed in January, has one inmate and one staff member who recently have tested positive for COVID-19. Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
GRAND FORKS After nearly half of the inmates in the Grand Forks County Correctional Center tested positive for COVID-19 during a November outbreak, it didn t take long for pleas for help to begin rolling out.