Danny Brown, Crawford County road consultant and bridge engineer, delivered an update on Feb. 17 to the commissioners.

Butts Road bridge was finished on Feb. 12 and was opened the same day. On Feb. 17, the High Point Road bridge was also reopened.

District 1 Associate Commissioner Mark Pfeiffer mentioned that they needed to go to the bridge on John Coleman Road to get the layout.

“We got to go out there and lay it out if we have to change stuff. We need to know what we’re getting ready to change,” Pfeiffer said.

All the decking and bridge beams were installed on Feb. 20 on the Sellers Road crossing, and about 85 percent of the tree stabilization for the banks was completed.

“Then Smith Road. I’m headed out there, here, just in a few minutes, to meet some landowners to get the approval on some right of way,” Brown said. “We’re having a hard time getting ahold of two landowners, so that’s kind of a hang up on it.”

As the Woolsey Road box culvert installation hit its 28-day deadline on Feb. 12, it reopened as well.

With the process starting on the Smith Road bridge replacement, the completion of the High Point Road bridge replacement and fixing one of the two bridges in need of repair on Four Mile Road in March 2025, the other bridge is the only one left on the Bridge Replacement Off-system (BRO) list that has to be fixed.

“We’ll get a new bridge, probably started on it, hopefully through BRO. It’s going to be a 2027 project. That will be the last bridge in Crawford County that needs to be replaced under BRO funding at this time,” Brown said. “We’ve got several other bridges needing to be fixed, don’t get me wrong, but under the BRO funding, that will be the last one, and that will be the first time, guys, in history, that I know of, Crawford County having all BROs fixed up.”

After Brown was done, the commissioners gave the floor to Dr. Caitlin Rosemann.

“I wanted to address, there was a statement that was released from the clerk’s office last month about how Rosemann Dental doesn’t take any dental insurance, and so I just wanted to clear up any misconceptions about that,” Rosemann said.

She explained that there are many misunderstandings about the difference between dental insurance and medical insurance.

“When people hear an out-of-network provider, they think, ‘Oh well, I can’t go there,’ because that’s how medical insurance is. Dental insurance is not the same, so most of the time, you can see an out-of-network provider,” Rosemann said.

County Clerk Kim Gibbs assured everyone that the post had been taken down and was the result of a misunderstanding with the co-pay.

In other business, Sheriff Darin Layman hopes to use the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) fund to help pay for elevator repairs at the jail.

“It’s still down, has been for, since last fall. So we’ve pushed it off until this budget year. We’ve budgeted some money,” Layman said. “I’d like to try to utilize some of the ADA funds to get that repaired as well.”

They are looking at getting more quotes, but they currently have $15,000 budgeted without using the ADA fund.