Wheelage tax on agenda for road and bridge hearing

When the five-year road and bridge construction plan is unveiled at a public hearing March 22, county commissioners will consider a wheelage tax to defray some construction costs.
The hearing begins at 1 p.m. in the Rock County Community Library.
Information and discussion about the tax to collect an additional $10 from vehicle owners when licenses are renewed will be presented along with the construction plan. Some vehicles are exempt from the tax.
The tax would generate a projected $93,000 annually that would be used exclusively for road and bridge construction in Rock County.
County Engineer Mark Sehr presented the wheelage tax information and the construction plan at the March 8 commissioners meeting.
He suggested gathering comments about the wheelage tax at the upcoming public hearing.
“Then decide what to do after that meeting,” he said.
Deadline for a decision to implement the tax is Aug. 1. If approved, the tax would take effect Jan. 1, 2017.
Also at the hearing, Sehr will detail the proposed plan to spend more than $10 million over the next five years to repair local roads and bridges.
In its entirety, the plan focuses on repairing 11 roadways and 21 bridges through 2020.
For this year, repairs focus on eight bridges.
No roadways are included in the plan for 2016 because of the work completed in 2014 and 2015 under a two-year accelerated construction plan. That plan spent $5.7 million and included the $1.7 million originally earmarked for roadways this year.
As a result, the county planned to spend considerably less in 2016.
Budgeted is $77,000 in county funds out of the proposed $1.83 million in bridge repairs in a combination of federal ($243,440) and state ($343,982) aid monies.
The plan proposes replacing four county bridges:
•Bridge 5497 on County Road 15 east of Kanaranzi in Kanaranzi Township;
•Bridge L2171 on County Road 55 in Magnolia Township;
•and two bridges L191 and L1997 on County Road 3 south of Kenneth in Vienna Township.
Under a separate fund, $325,000 is being spent on replacing four township bridges;
•Bridge L2194 on 200th Avenue south of Magnolia in Magnolia Township;
•and bridges R0233 on 181st Avenue, L2276 on 151st Street and an unnumbered bridge on 120th Avenue located north and west of the state park in Mound Township.