Winneshiek County may have to use its own funds to pay for bridge work

Barricades went up on Manawa Trail Road last year (decorahnews.com 2013 photo)

The Winneshiek County Board has voted 4-0 to award a contract of $169,855 to Minowa Construction to fix a bridge along Manawa Trail Road.

Bridge #318 suffered damaged in last summer's flooding.  Winneshiek County officials applied to FEMA for federal help in paying for repairs.  But County Engineer Lee Bjerke says the county still hasn't gotten an answer from the feds.

County supervisor Mark Kuhn said that left the county with no other options but to go ahead with the project and hope that federal funding will still be coming.  Because of the uncertainties of federal funding, county officials say the work that will be done by MInowa Construction will only restore the bridge to "pre-flood conditions" and won't tackle some other issues involving the bridge,