Allen County is seeking special appropriations from the Kansas Department of Transportation to replace two bridges.
They are the Geneva bridge over Indian Creek 2 miles east of Neosho Falls and the Hegwald bridge, named for a nearby landowner, over Owl Creek 2½ miles west of Humboldt.
Bill King, director of Public Works, said KDOT had “some extra money” that it intended to award for bridge construction.
The tipping point will be whether state funding is sufficient to permit the county to take advantage, meaning at least 80 percent will have to come from KDOT.
The county has $420,000 set aside in its special bridge fund, and construction of each bridge is expected to cost about $1 million. That would put the county’s responsibility at about $200,000, plus right of way and design costs.
As a precursor to a possible state grant, King suggested some design work be done.
“We’ve already done a little for the Geneva bridge,” he noted.
The two bridges, he added, are “two of the worst out there. They’ve been on our list for years.”
The Hegwald bridge isn’t as large as the Geneva, but could cost more because it crosses Owl Creek at an angle, which will require more work on approaches.
WAYNE SMITH, representing Humboldt’s Downtown Action Team, asked commissioners whether they’d thought any more about removing tin covering the senior center facade in Humboldt.
DAT is encouraging building owners to take off metal coverings and return Humboldt business buildings to the way they looked originally, with brick, stone and mortar fronts.
“We’ll have to take a look. That’s the only way we’ll know what the cost will be,” said Dick Works, commission chairman and Humboldt resident.
Smith, who renovated a downtown building that now holds granddaughter Stacy Mueller’s business, Stacy Cakes, allowed no owner was as yet on board with the project.
DAT members think having the county redo the senior center may be a catalyst.
“Making buildings look ‘modern’ was a disease of the 1950s,” chimed in Eileen Robertson, another of Humboldt historic preservation activists.
