ANALYSIS: Much work still needs to be done on Winneshiek County roads

The good news is that the 10 cents a gallon increase in Iowa's road use tax will bring in an additional $852,000 in new revenue to Winneshiek County soon.  The bad news is that there are still plenty of places to spend highway funds.

Winneshiek County supervisors have begun renewing a list of 12 projects just for FY 2015.  Ten of those projects involve replacing a defective bridge.

Redoing the shoulder of Trout Run Road would cost $300,000, while repaving part of the Frankville Road south of Highway 9 would cost $590,000.

Supervisors now will be asked to determine which bridges to replace first and which to replace a little later.  They will also be asked to estimate how much money will be available to pay for road projects.  The answer will be "more than before," but supervisors will have to be more exact than that, of course.

(by decorahnews.com county government reporter Paul Scott)