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County awards gravel crushing bid
The Pipestone County Board of Commissioners Tuesday accepted an $85,200 gravel-crushing bid from Sterzinger Construction. The bid was $5,080 lower than County Engineer, Dave Halbersma’s estimate of $90,280.
The Taunton, Minnesota company will provide gravel crushing services at the county’s recently purchased gravel pit southeast of Holland. The pit is located one and a half miles from the site of the County’s old gravel pit that dried up about 15 years ago.
The county purchased the 200-acre parcel of land for about $730,000 from Rupp Construction in February. It then received a conditional use permit in May to use 30 acres of the land as a gravel pit. Previously, the county had required contractors to find their own gravel source within the county.
Halbersma said the county typically contracts with a company to crush about 40,000 cubic yards of gravel every year. Last year it cost the county $121,920. Much of that cost, he said, was due to high fuel costs. In 2007 the county paid $90,280, which is what Halbersma based his estimate upon due to similar fuel costs.
Because the county was getting gravel through the contractor they also had to pay a gravel royalty fee of about 75 to 85 cents per yard.
“Now with our own gravel pit there’s no gravel royalty price in that because we own it,” Halbersma said. “It’s definitely some cost savings right off the bat.”
Halbersma said the contract states that the company can begin gravel production at any time, but because the land is currently used as farmland, gravel production will most likely begin after harvest time in October. If they start before then, the company would have to negotiate an agreement with the farmer who rents the land.
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