County engineer explains plan to make the most of funding

MARENGO — Finding money for projects to maintain 135 miles of paved roads, 75 miles of gravel and dirt roads and 200 bridges is something of a juggling act.

The county uses several funding sources to pay for its secondary roads department and projects, and each source has its own regulations, County Engineer Nick Amelon told the county Board of Supervisors in December.

The secondary roads department has 35 employees 12 grader routes and 10 snow routes, 1750 20-foot bridges and another 50 or 60 smaller ones, Amelon said. Paying employees and maintaining roads and bridges comes from five or six “piggy banks,” Amelon said.

Most paved roads and the more popular gravel roads are considered farm-to-market roads, and the county can use farm-to-market funds to pay for them. “We’ve spent a lot of it paving our paved road system,” said Amelon.

The county also has local funds — which can be spent on almost anything — and funds from the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, the federal Highway Bridge Program and Tax Increment Financing from the wind farms in the county.

“Each of these piggy banks has different rules,” said Amelon.

The county receives about $1 million a year in farm-to-market funds, said Amelon, and it’s allowed to go up to $5 million “in the hole,” he said. At the end of fiscal year 2024, Iowa County’s FM funds were at negative $2.4 million.

The county received $1.3 million this fiscal year and will spend $135,000 on remaining expenses from the 2024 paving of V66 and $188,000 on F67 in North English.

A $440,000 safety grant allowed the county to widen V66 to 12-foot lanes.

The county will spend $700,000 on gravel for farm-to-market routes, leaving the balance at the end of fiscal year 2025 at negative $2.1 million.

In the future Amelon wants to save farm-to-market money for gravel and use TIF, what Amelon calls “windmill money,” to pave roads.

Highway Bridge Program

Federal Highway Bridge Program money can only be used on bridges that are listed on the National Bridge Inventory database, classified as either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete and have a sufficiency rating below a certain threshold (typically 50 for replacement and 80 for rehabilitation), meaning it needs significant repair or replacement due to its condition.

The county had $1.2 million in bridge funds at the end of fiscal year 2024 and will receive $863,985 for this fiscal year. Amelon has no bridge projects for 2025 but plans to build two bridges per year the next couple of years using TIF money.

The balance as of June 30, 2025 will be $2 million, and Amelon’s OK with having money on hand. The county lost money last year because it didn’t have matching funds, said Amelon.

Tax Increment Financing

More than $200,000 from TIF funds were used to replace a bridge on H Avenue, and another $180,600 paid for a culvert on 190th Street.

TIF covers only a few projects, said Amelon, “so we’re going to have to get a little creative.

“We have six projects planned for next year,” Amelon said. A bridge on D Avenue will be replace for about $400,000, and the county will spend $3.8 million to pave H Avenue and another $850,000 to pave 265th St. in the summer of 2025.

Local funds

Local funds are tight and pay for all the salaries.

In fiscal year 2025, local funds paid for bridge projects M-2250 and Hi-4055 — at a cost of $310,000 — and will pay for HC-2350 in the spring of 2025, bringing the total expenditure for FY25 to $490,000.

“Our guys put together … two of these aluminum culverts,” said Amelon.

Supervisors approved a bid of $148,800 from Rinker Materials for the HC-2350 project during its Dec. 13 meeting. The culvert should arrive the middle of May, said Amelon, and the project will take about six weeks to complete.

“It’s a three-ton bridge right now,” said Amelon. “You can’t take a school bus over it.”

“Overall, this summer our guys did excellent,” said Amelon. The county removed six very-low tonnage bridges from the embargo list this year because of the secondary roads crew, he said.

“The other thing that our guys have done really well … is crack sealing on all the roads,” Amelon said. “They have saved you a lot of money doing that.”

Income, expenses

Receipts from property tax levies remain consistent at $1.3 million a year, Amelon said.

Local-option sales tax stays close to $1.7 million. “That number has not kept up with inflation either,” said Amelon.

Expenses have risen by more than a million. Amelon estimated administration and engineering costs rising from $651,457 last fiscal year to $732,970 this year. Construction will increase from about $995,000 to more than $1.3 million, and roadway maintenance will be up nearly $870,000.

“I probably need to buy some trucks,” Amelon said.

Even with expenses outstripping revenue, secondary roads should end the fiscal year with nearly $4 million. Amelon tries to keep a cushion of about six-months-worth of expenses, he said. That ranks about in the middle of all counties in the state.

“You guys do a good job of providing secondary roads enough money,” said Amelon.

Unknown for the future are the cost of rock, which the county spends about $2 million a year on, and fuel, which costs about $430,000 a year. That cost can go $200,000 in either direction, Amelon said.

Inflation

Local funds are not keeping up with inflation, Amelon said. Without the raise in state gas tax in 2015 and COVID stimulus money, things would look even worse.

Inflation is up 50% from 2014, Amelon said, while money from property tax and local-option sales tax have barely increased. The difference is about $1.5 million.

Amelon suggested that the county use farm-to-market money to pay for gravel ($600,000 a year) and paint striping ($65,000 a year).

The county could expand the TIF area to encompass the entire county allowing secondary roads to complete more projects in-house, saving the county $150,000 to $200,000 per bridge.

That would save $300,000 to $400,000 in local funds, Amelon said.

“We wanted to focus the money where the windmills are,” Amelon said. “[But] if we do encompass the whole county … we can move $300,000 into the TIF.”

If the county could use TIF money it could replace 10-12 bridges in the space of two or three years. “We’ll get 12 of the posted bridges done as quickly as we can get more money,” Amelon said.

Supervisor Abby Maas noted that TIF projects cost more because of bonding and publication of ads that are required.

Amana Colonies

The Amana funds, which are distributed by the state through a road use tax, have a balance of a million dollars and annual receipts of $250,000. The money has to be used in the Amana district.

Amelon will look at improvements to G Avenue for next year, he said.

“We’ve been spending a quarter million each year,” said Amelon. He’ll look at some larger proects in the future.

Amelon spent some money on gravel a few weeks ago and bought a truck. They now do their own snow removal, Amelon said.