County engineer says work on 305th Street nearly completed

By BRYCE KELLY

Mt. Pleasant News

There was only a single item on the agenda at Tuesday?s Henry County Board of Supervisors meeting. Jake Hotchkiss, Henry County engineer, gave his weekly progress report before the board.

At the top of Hotchkiss? report was an update of the work that was done on 305th Street to replace a culvert. According to Hotchkiss, operators were finishing up work on Thursday afternoon and had the road opened up to traffic. Work was completely finalized on Friday when crews moved equipment off 305th Street.

In ongoing news, the contractor in charge of construction on 150th Street, east of Highway 218 is still hard at work. Hotchkiss is confident that things are progressing well and work should be done soon.

?The rain kind of slowed things down towards the end of last week, but things are drying out and work is progressing,? Hotchkiss said. ?Things are coming together.?

The crack filling on Racine Avenue from Mt. Union to 240th Street is also coming together according to Hotchkiss. He estimated that the project should be in the final stages of construction by Wednesday afternoon.

A quarterly report for the Henry County Engineer?s office was the last thing to be presented by Hotchkiss. Overall, the county seems to be in good financial shape.

?Right now we have budgeted 4.8 million dollars roughly, and have spent 1 million dollars up to this point. Right now, we are at a good place; we are where we need to be at in my opinion.? Hotchkiss said.

According to the report, about 15 percent of the county?s engineer budget went to roadway maintenance, while local construction took about 24 percent of the budget.

The next Henry County Board of Supervisors meeting will be on Thursday, Oct. 9, at 9 a.m. in the Henry County Courthouse.