BEATRICE – The Gage County Board has approved the county’s updated one-and-six-year road plan. The action followed a public hearing held Wednesday.
This year’s construction schedule includes 46 projects, with another 27 listed on the county’s tentative future schedule. Highway Superintendent Galen Engel said 5.6 miles of asphalt resurfacing is planned this year, most of it south of Holmesville and one mile northeast of Beatrice.


Armor-coat maintenance will be completed on about 34 miles of hard-surfaced roads. A suggestion to add new paving on three miles of West Hickory Road, to where it connects with Nebraska Highway 103, was left off the plan. Engel says some preliminary work must be done before it can become part of the schedule. One mile of the road is a county road, while the remainder is township road.


Potential hard surfacing of three miles of county road at the west edge of Virginia, connecting with Nebraska Highway 4, remains on the six-year plan of the county.


The supervisors approved a policy change on township requests for road surface material. The board approved a plan that will allow townships to obtain two miles of rock over a year’s time, instead of gravel material.  Surface material allocations have not been completed from the spring of last year….and fall allocations are next…before moving on to rock and gravel allotments for 2021.


The county board received bids from five companies today for rock and gravel supplies for this year.


In other action, supervisors recommended approval of a class-C liquor license for a rural Beatrice couple, who constructed an indoor gym and storage facility this past year.  The vote recommending approval of the application of Dan and Lori Crawford now goes to the Nebraska Liquor Commission, for consideration.
The facility, named the Countryside Event Center, is located along Southwest 131st Road, about six miles west of Beatrice. There was no opposition to the license application during a public hearing.