The Meade County Commission held its first meeting of June on Wednesday, the 14th.

Auctioneer Bob Bertolotto appeared to give a report and a check in the amount of $7,882 for surplus items the county sold at the recent joint school/city/county auction.

We started preliminary work on the 2018 budget, but took no action. We’ll start the heavy lifting at our next meeting. Health insurance, as it is for every individual, company, or governmental body is going to be the hardest thing to figure out. Meade County has a small group plan with Wellmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield that, because of high claim history the past three years, is looking at a huge premium increase.

The engineering estimates provided by the state Department of Transportation for the Black Hawk sidewalk project came in higher than expected. This project, you might remember, is being done through a grant administered by the DOT, which approved only so much money for the project; any additional costs above that amount have to be borne by the county. This project was approved by the county in 2013, but because of foot-dragging by the DOT, inflation has made the project more expensive. We approved the estimates, but are hopeful the bids will come in less.

The one bid to construct the hoop building to house sand at Piedmont was rejected. Meade County Highway Superintendent Lincoln Shuck will be looking at a different design that hopefully will cost less.

We approved the 2017 pavement marking agreement and right-of-way certificates for the Nemo bridge project.

We approved the special event alcoholic beverage license for the 2nd Annual Brandon Delzer Bull Riding event, which will be held June 24th.

We adjourned until our next meeting on June 28th. God Bless Meade County.