Valley County road director proposes reopening FY26 budget to allocate about $2.7 million for rehabilitation projects

Valley County’s road director briefed commissioners on Dec. 22 about an updated roads report and proposed changes to the county’s carryover and FY26 budget to accelerate rehabilitation projects.

Director Diedrich (Speaker 6) told the board the county has a carryover balance of 'almost 5,000,000' and proposed reopening the FY26 budget to set a carryover of roughly $1.8 million while allocating approximately $2.7 million for road rehabilitation projects. She said projects identified in the county’s 2023 transportation management plan — including West Mountain Road and West Roseberry paving, Lakeshore Drive surface treatment and Lake Fork Bridge rehabilitation — remain priorities. Diedrich said she will coordinate with the Local Highway Technical Assistance Council (LTAC), confirm receipts for grant reimbursements (noting an item of about $30,000–$40,000 in grant expenditures that must be accounted for), and prepare RFPs and RFQs for work.

Commissioners asked for further detail about which roads to add and emphasized that the director should return with a clear list of proposed projects. Speaker 3 said the board needs 'a very clear picture from the director of everything she wants to add' before reopening the budget. Speaker 6 suggested a work session in the second week of January to discuss reopening the FY26 budget and said she could provide proposed additions before the Jan. 5 meeting if needed.

The board did not vote to reopen the budget on Dec. 22; instead it approved sending the updated road form as submitted with two minor accounting edits pending confirmation of receipts and directed staff to return with more detailed proposals and, if necessary, a public work session on reopening FY26.

Attribution: Quotes and figures are taken from the meeting transcript and are attributed to the meeting speaker labels (for example 'Speaker 6').