A big focus of a recent Dallas County Board of Supervisors meeting was the Secondary Roads Department.

The first item was consideration of bids for debris removal at seven locations around the County, which is being funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The low bid was $198,825 from Batey, LTD, which is the contractor hired in 2015, the last time the County needed large-scale debris removal. In addition to that the Board also considered bids received for a box culvert project on U Avenue. The lone bidder was Forterra Pipe and Precast for $62,120, which County Engineer Al Miller said was well under the estimate. The Board hasn’t yet approved awarding either bid, as Miller will be bringing contracts and other documents for them to consider at a future meeting.

Other roads items considered related to purchase requests. One was for a new UTV to be used primarily for the vegetation program. The Board approved the purchase of a Ranger XP900 EPS for $11,714.96 from Hicklin Powersports, which included the trade-in of an older UTV. The other purchase was a vacuum excavator, which is used to locate underground lines to help crews avoid inadvertently cutting any utilities while digging. The Supervisors approved the purchase of a Ring-O-Matic excavator for $70,639 from Midwest Underground. Both purchases were normal items on the Roads Department budget.