County roadside management program is getting up to full speed

Winneshiek County supervisors hired the county's first-ever Roadside Manager to work in 2016.  Now a new person, Corey Meyer, has taken over that position. 

Meyer says the County Road Department has focused on clearing, mowing and removing nuisance brush from hard-surfaced road corridors in the last year.  He says not only does such work eradicate roadside hazards, but it improves snow and ice removal by cleaning up troublesome spots that cause repeated trips for snow removal.

County employees conducted 70 ditch clean-outs throughout the county last summer.  The areas received over 5,875 pounds of cover crops and highway seed mix to help revegetate the bare ditch bottoms and slopes.  The program will expand this next year to continue propagating native species in cleanout areas but also to create grasslands along W42, W46, B16, and W38 to act as areas of beautification and habitat for pollinators and wildlife.

More information about the work being done through the roadside management program is available at:  http://www.winneshiekcounty.org/departments/engineers-office/roadside-management