HERMANN — Ironic, perhaps, that the Gasconade County Commission heard from a prospective new civil engineering firm on the morning the final closeout action was announced for the new Valentine Ford Road bridge — a project that has taken far too long to conclude and strained relations between county administrators and their longtime consulting engineering firm.

“We have finally got the Valentine Ford Road closeout documents,” said Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, at the outset of the panel’s weekly session Thursday morning. Schulte publicly thanked Associate Commissioners Jerry Lairmore, R-Hermann, and Jim Holland, R-Hermann, and County Clerk Lesa Lietzow for all the work they put in on getting the project completed.

The bridge itself was built in quick order several months ago; the final sign-off by the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) was delayed several times because of an engineering design flaw affecting the area the bridge that had to be repaired and the project engineer — working on several other projects of local governments — being able to find the time to complete the necessary project documents.

Aaron McVicker of McClure Engineering, who first had met the Gasconade County administrators at a conference, formally introduced himself and his company Thursday morning.

“My main focus is in the transportation realm — roads, bridges, culverts,” he said, adding that the firm with offices in Columbia and Kansas City does engineering work on projects ranging from wastewater treatment plants to parking lots.

McVicker said he is familiar with two things of importance to the Commission: The state’s BRO (Bridge Replacement Off-system) program and MoDOT’s rules and regulations on road-and-bridge projects.

“I used to work for MoDOT for 12 years,” he said. “I’m very familiar” with the BRO program.”

Schulte told McVicker the county is pondering a change regarding its consulting engineers. “I would say that we’re very interested in looking for another (engineering) firm,” the presiding commissioner said.

That sentiment came out in a comment from Lairmore moments later in the discussion with McVicker. Referring to the problems surrounding the Valentine Ford Road bridge, the Southern District commissioner said, “We started this project two years ago and we’re just now closing it out.”

But the county clerk was quick to correct the project’s timeline. “We started this project four years ago,” Lietzow said.

Lairmore noted that the county might soon be hearing from MoDOT about approval of another bridge project. If that happens, McClure Engineering would be included in the invitations sent to engineering companies asking for Requests For Proposals.

“We’d love to work with you,” McVicker said.

Schulte said he likes having another option available for engineering work. “Competition is good for us,” he said.

It’s not just the Valentine Ford Road bridge problems that have the Commission annoyed with its engineering firm, Archer-Elgin of Rolla. While a design flaw regarding the area around the bridge required a significant amount of work and additional time and cost was irritating to county officials, the sharpest thorn-in-the-side matter might have been the time taken by the project engineer to complete the documents needed to obtain final approval from MoDOT. To be fair, the county’s consulting engineer also is the engineer for the cities of Hermann and Owensville, as well as other communities, and several times was pulled off the county’s bridge project to deal with the more-pressing items of his other clients.

Adding to the county’s irritation is the time it took for Archer-Elgin to draft a set of plans for the proposed elevator in the courthouse. Indeed, a representative from the engineering company is scheduled to provide an update at next week’s session. Thanks to some glitches not related to the engineering, the elevator, also, could become a long-term project. For instance, it was noted during an earlier Commission session that the contractor’s application paperwork seeking approval from Hermann’s Landmarks Commission for exterior work on the courthouse was submitted late.

More recently, the Landmarks Commission was scheduled to hear about the project at a July 11 session and county officials didn’t know if a representative of the contractor was on hand for that meeting. A notice from City Hall mentioned that attendance by the applicant at the Landmarks Commission meeting was “strongly encouraged.”

The courthouse work is being overseen by TREMCO, the St. Charles company that was the general contractor for the new roof on the courthouse.

A final cost estimate for the elevator hasn’t been determined; nor is there a projected start date. Lietzow said administrators are “probably looking at August until anything is done on the elevator” project.

The elevator installation and exterior courthouse renovation is projected to take about $2.1 million of the $2.4 million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars still remaining in the bank. If those figures hold, that would leave about $300,000 to be dispersed among more than a dozen requests for a second-distribution of ARPA money to local government agencies, non-profits and small businesses seeking a share of the money. Those requests total about $1.4 million.

Commission members are scheduled to meet at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday) at the courthouse in Hermann.