The county’s highway committee met Monday to recommend the county commission advertise for bids on the property at 900 13th St. SE, which is valued at $1.5 million.

The property of 5.5 usable acres includes an office building, three shop buildings and fuel tanks. The committee is recommending the county provide a tour in March to prospective buyers, with the hope of potentially closing on a sale in April.

The county spent $1.75 million to purchase a new highway department facility in east Minot from Halliburton. That property, built in 2012 and assessed at $6.8 million, includes several structures on 37 acres. County commissioners toured the facility Monday to see how buildings are being used. The department moved in last November.

The highway committee also reviewed projects presented by Dana Larsen, county engineer, for construction in 2021. Projects include installing a box culvert at Gasman Coulee near the gun range, lining collapsed drainage pipes to keep them in use along County Road 12 in the area of Livingston Coulee and widening County Road 14 near Minot for a left turn toward Beaver Creek. The county also is looking at $186,000 in engineering costs to design a new bridge to replace the one over the Souris River that collapsed this past fall on the Ward/McHenry county border. It also plans a largely federally funded replacement of three rural bridges in northern Ward County.

Jill Schramm/MDN Ward County Commissioners, from left, Shelly Weppler, John Fjeldahl and John Pietsch check out the lobby of the new Ward County Highway Department during a tour of the buildings Monday.

The county has about $3.5 million that has been levied for highway use in 2021.

Jill Schramm/MDN Trucks park Monday in the new Ward County Highway Department mechanics shop, where they are being painted and primed to be added to the county fleet.