Rochester Sand and Gravel emerged the clear winner Tuesday, when contracts were awarded for highway repair and recreation trail projects.

The Rochester firm was the low bidder for three contracts awarded by the county commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting.

While all three are important, the Shooting Star Recreation Trail project has the higher profile.

The Rochester firm was awarded a contract for $682,480 to build the hard-surface 8.5-mile extension of the trail from Taopi to Adams.

Ulland Bros. Inc. unsuccessfully bid $758,615 and Road Constructors, Inc., unsuccessfully bid $771,602.

According to Michael Hanson, county highway department engineer, the work will begin this fall, but is not expected to be completed until next spring.

Presently, the trial originates in the city of LeRoy, extends westward through Lake Louise State Park and proceeds on to Taopi.

For three years, the Taopi to Adams extension has been delayed by a bitter court battle.

Not until, the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a Mower County District Court ruling allowing the county to take the necessary land for the trail by eminent domain did the dispute reach closure.

According to Hanson, all land owners have now signed agreements required by the courts to sign over their land (abandoned railroad right-of-way) to the county for the trail extension’s construction.

When the trail is complete, the land will be turned over to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for ongoing maintenance.

Last summer, Ray Tucker, 2nd District, and Dave Hillier, 3rd District, held a meeting with landowners between Adams and Rose Creek to discuss the trail’s extension from Adams to Rose Creek. There was no opposition to those plans.

Now, county officials must wait for the Adams extension to be constructed and opened before assessing if they have the funding to the Rose Creek extension.

Also at Tuesday’s county board meeting, Rochester Sand and Gravel was awarded 2 contracts for Fall road projects.

The firm’s low bid of $64,903 was accepted for eight-tenths of a mile stretch of Mower County CSAH No. 45 (Old Highway 218 near Echo Lanes) and another low bid was accepted for $154,517 for a 2-mile stretch of Mower County CSAH No. 8 south of Grand Meadow.

Both projects will involved milling the existing surface and asphalt overlays.

According to Hanson, the Rochester firm’s bids were below the engineer’s estimate.

The road work will begin immediately with a priority given the CSAH No. 8 project because of its importance to rural motorists, including farmers at harvest.

LIDAR coming

Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is a remote sensing system used to collect topographic data. This technology is being used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Soon, the light beam sensors will be used to collect topographic data for Mower County.

The commissioners approved a proposal Tuesday recommended by the county engineer which will allow Mower County to share the LIDAR costs with seven other counties in southeastern Minnesota.

Mower County’s share of the costs will be $16,613, according to Hanson.

The seven counties formed a consortium called the Southeastern Minnesota LIDAR Initiative to, in part, help reduce the anticipated $93,000 costs.

With financial assistance from the Mower County Soil and Water Conservation District and Turtle Creek, Shell Rock and Cedar River watersheds the cost was reduced further.

According to Hanson, Rice County paid over $200,000 to have the LIDAR service done there.

Also spurring the consortium’s creation is the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which sees the aircraft-born light beam collection of elevation measurements as an asset to its work, including flood control.

Referring to the $16,613 expenditure for LIDAR, Hanson understated, “Basically, this is a great deal for us.”

The money will come from the county’s land records account which currently has a balance of $254,000, according to county coordinator Craig Oscarson.

The data collected by LIDAR will be available for the public’s use, according to Hanson.

“If Mower County did this by itself it would easily cost over $200,000,” Hanson said.

Dave Hillier, 3rd District, made the motion to accept Hanson’s recommendation. Ray Tucker, 2nd District, seconded it. All four commissioners present Tuesday (Dave Tollefson, 5th District, was absent) voted “aye.”