BIG denial discussed at meeting

By: 
Leslie Silverman

Keystone town engineer Ron Bengs presented a report on the Roy Street bridges at the most recent Keystone Town Board meeting.

He also tried to clarify why one of the bridges was not eligible for the Bridge Improvement Grant (BIG).

“I don’t have a good explanation,” said Bengs, who pulled reports on the structure in question.

In 2018 the decking was rated four and all other ratings were five. In 2019 all ratings were five. In 2020 all ratings were five.

The lower the rating the more serious the need for repair or replacement.

“There is some subjectivity in the ratings,” Bengs said. “I don’t have a good explanation how the decking (rating) increased.”

In a letter presented to the board Bengs referenced discussions with the previous town engineer.

“I was of the understanding the structure was eligible and assumed discussions with the DOT (South Dakota Department of Transportation) had verified that,” Bengs said. “Apparently those discussions never took place.”

Bengs also discussed the bridge with the “inspection team leader in 2020” who “also felt the structure was eligible.”

Bengs offered “misinterpretation” on the part of the DOT or some “miscommunication internally” as possible reasons for the denial.

He suggested ongoing communication between inspection teams, his office and the town in the future as a means to avoid this type of error.

Bengs hopes to submit bridge construction plans to the town by May 1 for its review.

After that DOT approval for advertising will take place and bids should open this summer. Once the contract is awarded construction can begin, which Bengs estimates to be this fall.

Bengs also outlined a proposal for the Keystone Cemetery. In it he outlined three possible tasks.

Task one would be to survey and verify the boundary of the cemetery. This would include 48 monuments. The cost of this would be $5,000.

Task two would involve redrafting and creating a map along with mapping the existing road. This would be available to the town on a printable PDF file allowing the town to be able to edit or overlay names. The cost of this would be $3,000 to $3,500.

Task three would be to add names to a spreadsheet at a cost of $1,800 to $2,000.

The town board will discuss this proposal at its next meeting.

The town board thanked two businesses at the meeting for supplying food and drinks to the firefighters who worked on the two fires in town. The Keystone Country Store for donated water to the first responders while Boss’ Pizza and Boss’s Burgers and Cheesesteaks donated pizzas and wings.

“Pretty much anytime a firefighter walked into Boss’ they comped their meal,” said president Lynette Gohsman.

In addition, Sherry Smith, Kim Merrill and Laura McMillan were thanked for baking cookies for the first responders.

Work on the town gym should be completed by the middle of May. Keystone Public Works has finished with the painting of the walls.

The floor will be refinished in the last two weeks of April and the carpet will be put on the walls thereafter.

“It looks great,” said finance officer Cassandra Ott, who explained that the biggest cost to the project was the carpet.

The paint cost under $1,000 even with the rental of the lift.

The remapping of the floodplain project is ahead of schedule. AE2S has a “new guy on the team” who is spending a lot of time on the project.

The project is expected to be complete by mid summer, which means that reimbursable funds to the town can come back faster.

The Keystone Fire Protection meeting will take place next week. Ott reported that after reaching out to Mica Keralis of Neiman Enterprises, the company is still committed to its existing projects despite its Hill City sawmill closing.

The water SCADA system project is “progressing nicely.”

The town reached out to Rich Zacher from the DOT since the drains on Winter Street “that are supposed to drain water hold water.”

The DOT will be correcting this beginning May 1. The project will take a couple of weeks to complete. Work will not take place on weekends to avoid peak tourist time.

Town trustee Sandi McLain announced that the Keystone Economic Development Association (KEDA). KEDA is now a registered 501(C) 3 entity.

The next Keystone Town Board meeting is April 21 at 9 a.m.

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