Jill Schramm/MDN Ward County Highway Engineer Dana Larsen presents department information to county commissioners Tuesday as they follow the details on their screens.

A seven-mile section of Ward County 14 is scheduled to be paved this summer, creating the first leg of a future paved roadway that will eventually connect to N.D. Highway 8, south of Stanley.

The Ward County Commission accepted a $4.77 million bid from Mayo Construction to pave the gravelled section of CR 14 that runs from Ward County 9, south of Berthold, to the Mountrail County line. Mountrail County is proposing to pave the connecting road in its county to N.D. 8 in 2026, which would result in pavement from N.D. 8 into Minot, where CR 14 becomes 37th Avenue South.

Dana Larsen, county highway engineer, told commissioners Tuesday that the bid was significantly under the engineer’s estimate. Half the funding will come from the county’s sales tax and half from a FLEX fund grant from the N.D. Department of Transportation.

The commission also accepted the $339,548 bid of Traffic Safety Services to repaint centerlines and other pavement markings on all paved roads other than County Roads 8 and 11, which will be repaved this year.

In addition, the commission voted to sell three county-owned lots at Rice Lake for a total of $1,624.

The commission also received an update on the opioid use disorder treatment program at the Ward County Jail from Jail Commander Paul Olthoff.

“We’re running between 20 and 25 people that are on the program. It’s been very successful. We’re just getting going. There’s been less hiccups than I thought there was going to be,” Olthoff said.

Ward County was awarded a $100,000 grant through the Reaching Rural Initiative in connection with an initiative fellowship entered into by the executive director of the Minot Area Recovery Community Organization. Olthoff said grant money has yet to be received, but it will augment funds from a class action opioid lawsuit settlement that are coming to Ward County and the City of Minot.

“We’re fully funded for two years,” said Olthoff, who received permission from the commission to apply for additional grants for the drug program. Most of the project costs so far have been to fund the program officer position. Minimal settlement money has been spent on medications because of access to the North Dakota Substance Use Disorder Voucher program, which provides financial assistance to individuals seeking treatment.

New inmates are screened to see if they might be candidates for the program, and if so, they are connected with Community Medical Services in Minot for medication assisted treatment, counseling and peer support that is meant to continue even after release from jail.

Olthoff said recidivism in terms of people returning to jail from January through March showed contact with only three inmates, and those were for failure to pay fines and not new offenses.