By Jill Fennema –

Pipestone County Auditor/Treasurer Tyler Reisch has resigned his position effective August 28. The county board will address filling his position at the August 10 board meeting. Reisch has taken a position with the Luverne School District.

At the July 23 Pipestone County board meeting, Lindsey Breuer with the Minnesota Department of Transportation gave a presentation. Breuer is MnDOT’s District 8 planning director. She shared MnDOT’s 10-year plan with the county board.

She explained that the funding the district receives varies per year ranging from $30 million to $68 million, which is the projected budget for 2028. They receive state money to manage the higher volume roadways like Highway 23, but that is given to them centrally, so the district does not always get a lot of say in those projects.

“Right now things look pretty good as far as pavements and bridges go,” Breuer said. The DOT measures roads and bridges in a variety of ways. One way is the Ride Quality Index, the measure of how smooth or rough the road surface is. According to that measure, a lot of the roads in District 8 are in good condition.

Another measure the DOT uses is “Remaining Service Life.” That measures the life left in the pavement – not how it feels, but how much life is left in the pavement. Breuer explained that using that measure, things are looking worse and that is a sign of what is to come.

By the end of 10 years, they expect that about 19 percent of the lower used roadways will be in poorer condition. “We are taking steps to re-evaluate the program,” she said. “The district is taking this very seriously. We are looking at what we can do.”   She added that preventive maintenance will help keep the roads better longer.

Right now, District 8 was the worst in the state. Three years ago, District 1 (Duluth area) and District 7 (Mankato area) were the worst and they received extra funding to address their issues and Breuer said that perhaps District 8 would get a boost next year.

Breuer also noted that the bridges in the district are still in good condition, but the condition on some will be dropping from “good” to “fair” in the future.

She also reviewed some state projects that will be happening in the southwest portion of District 8 in the next 10 years.

In 2024, Highway 23 from Pipestone to Highway 91 will be milled and overlayed. A bridge in Pipestone will also be replaced. This is estimated to cost $10.7 million.

In 2025, On Highway 30 by the border with South Dakota, automated speed warning sensors will be put on the curves at the border. These will hopefully get drivers’ attention to keep people from missing the curves. The cost is steep – $355,000 – but also includes the cost of getting electricity to the signs.

In 2028, Highway 75 from the Pipestone Creek bridge to South Valley Street in Lake Benton, which is the southern edge of town, will be cold-in-place recycled and overlayed. The estimated cost for that is $6.8 million.

In 2029, Highway 30 from the SD State line to 8th Ave in Pipestone will be milled and overlayed as well.

“A lot of the band-aid fixes that have been done have not been good enough,” Chairman Luke Johnson commented. Breuer said that in the past the DOT has tried to have thinner fixes on more miles, while now they are looking at better, more long-term fixes, on shorter stretches.

The board also asked about roundabouts. Breuer said that they have no plans for any in this area, but they do have some planned for the eastern part of the district. She explained that they like to put roundabouts in places where there have been fatalities. “Roundabouts reduce fatalities,” she said. Roundabouts reduce head-on and t-bone type crashes that cause more fatalities. They have talked about putting some in Marshall on the bypass, but they do not have anything specific planned.