Phase two of Belva Deer Project set for May 1

            The Keokuk County Board of Supervisors on Monday approved a bid for the grading phase of the Belva Deer project, with a start date of May 1 proposed by the County Engineer.

            DeLong Construction of Washington was awarded the contract out of seven “competitive” bids from across the state according to County Engineer Andrew McGuire, with DeLong’s bid reported the lowest at $393,001.15. According to McGuire, this bid is $120,000 under the cost amount estimated by French-Reneker, the project architect. Delong has previously worked with the county on the recent W15 project near Keota and culvert work.

            “We need to get this thing wrapped up because of Washington Riverboat Foundation money in this that is time-sensitive,” McGuire said. “The rest of the project will be paid with money we have on hand from the Keokuk County Endowment Fund, the $40,000 contribution from the Conservation Board and the rest of the money will be made from the Transportation Alternative Funds through the region, which are federal dollars.”

            McGuire pointed out that the Belva Deer project will not be funded by local tax dollars, a goal of the Board and the Engineer after seven years of planning. In addition to grading the trail, phase two will also address erosion control, rock surfacing and cutting extra ditches in the trail to address storm water running across.

            “There are some amenities we are going to install with this project,” McGuire said. “There some plantings we’re going to do, concrete pads with benches we plan to put out and areas of regrade we need to do to make it ADA compliant to keep it from being too steep for handicapped persons.”

Please view the February 14 edition of The News-Review for the full story.