County road projects to be bid for 2025 construction

By Anna Jauhola
The Kittson County Highway Department will be busy with several road projects in 2025.
During the regular meeting of the Kittson County Commissioners on Tuesday, Jan. 21, the board approved advertising for bids on six construction projects and regular road maintenance.
The biggest project will be overlay reconstruction of CSAH 7 east of Kennedy from CSAH 5 through the curves. However, these will be bid separately due to how the curves were originally funded.
“The curves were rebuilt years ago using special money,” said Keith Klegstad, assistant county engineer. “In order to use the same stationing that we did with the original redesign of those curves, we separated (the projects) out.”
The 4.6 miles from CSAH 5 to the curves will be bid as one project, and then the 1.5 miles of curves along CSAH 7 will be bid separately.
The other large project will be a mill and overlay on CSAH 19 totalling 8.2 miles, and will be split into two sections — from State Highway 11 north to CSAH 7; from CSAH 7 north to CSAH 10.
The final project to be advertised is just over a half-mile of complete reconstruction of CSAH 31 by Karlstad.
As a part of this approval, the board also agreed to let the highway department advertise for bids on a bridge replacement project in North Red River Township. Although bridge L-4350 won’t be replaced until 2026, Klegstad said it takes over a year just to get the box culverts needed for this replacement. So the bridge project will only be bid this year, but paid for out of the 2026 budget.
Tax forfeited
leased land
The board also received and opened bids for parcels of county-owned tax forfeited land. There were four parcels and the board opened bids for three of them.
For the 55-acre parcel in Caribou Township, the board received two bids and awarded the top bid to Cody Schmalz for $1,380 per year over the next three years. The other bid was from Roland Larter for $1,001. For the 90-acre parcel in Caribou Township, the board approved the one bid of $1,450 from Roland Larter. For the parcel in Richardville Township, the board approved a bid for $2,400 from Matt and Emily Kuzel. The board received no bids for the parcel in Deerwood Township, and will likely advertise for bids.
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In other business, the board:
• Approved advertising for bids on countywide regraveling, equipment rental, roadside mowing, striping, crack sealing and aggregate production.
• Approved an addendum to the social services Caseworks contract to include the Case Status Tracker, a pilot program. Social Services Director Brittany Swenson said this will help everyone involved stay better informed of what’s going on in each case. There is no extra cost.
• Approved an three-year renewal of the Independent Emergency Services Support Program at a cost of $55,766.65. This amount is covered by 911 funds.
• Approved the resignation of Jada Klegstad from the driver’s license office, effective Jan. 31.
• Approved a renewed contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield for retired county employees who received Medicare benefits as BCBS neglected to charge their $5 commission fee, said CFO Shirley Swenson. This is a monthly fee to each retired employee. HR specialist Jen Burton will send a letter and bill that cost to the county’s three retired employees who receive this benefit.
• Approved the elected and appointed officials’ board and committee appointments list.
• Approved a resolution setting the 2025 elected officials’ salaries – Sheriff, $113,755.20; Attorney, $47,960; each commissioner, $26,378.30.
• Approved a resolution for 2025 for the chief financial officer to make electronic funds transfers.
The next regular meeting is set for Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 9 a.m. in the upstairs meeting room at the courthouse in Hallock.