Mower County Public Works is looking to follow the old adage to not put off until tomorrow what can be done today.

The county board unanimously voted Tuesday to seek about $750,000 in state aid funds for highway projects originally designated for 2016 to help complete a 5-mile stretch of County State Aid Highway 8 north of Grand Meadow this year.

Public Works Director Mike Hanson said this is the first time the county has borrowed state aid money from the next year, which would mean Mower would receive that much less state aid in 2016. However, the county can make up the difference next year, because it’s set to receive federal funding for projects on 10th Drive near Echo Lanes and Fourth Drive South of Calvary Cemetery set for next year. The federal funding is based on traffic volume.

“Next year will be projects that do not require a lot of state aid funding so that we can recover from this borrowing,” Hanson said.

Hanson said the work on CSAH 8 would get done anyway, so it’s preferable to do it this year, especially since it could cost more next year.

“The plan is to fix the road now because it’s the time to fix it and its the best time to fix it,” Hanson said.

If for some reason the CSAH 8 work doesn’t move forward, the money will be used on a different county state aid highway.