The Department of the Interior today approved four road construction contracts Which are expected to improve economic and educational opportunities for Indians on four reservations in South Dakota.
Totaling $708,346, the contracts will make possible better school bus service, better marketing of farm and ranch products, and better access for tourists, and new jobs for Indian workmen during the coming year, Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs said.
The road projects are scheduled for the Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Crow Creek and Sisseton Reservations. The contracts parallel similar resource development efforts on Indian lands as one phase of the Bureau's efforts to stimulate employment and to create desirable conditions for industrial and business development on reservations.
Funds for road building on reservations derive from Bureau of Indian Affairs road program money. Contracts are awarded on a bid basis.
Under a contract for $128,306.36, the Van Buskirk Construction Company of Sioux City, Iowa, will grade and drain 6.6 miles of the Little White River Road on the Rosebud Reservation in Todd County, South Dakota. This road will permit tourist travel into the Little White River Valley recreational area, make school bus service available to 30 Indian families, and give them a better transportation link between farm and market. Five bids ranging to $179,403.76 were received for this project.
E. Stoltenberg and Son of St. Paul, Nebraska, was the successful bidder on the Pine Ridge Reservation contract for $189,204.44. Work under this contract covers grading and draining of the Slim Buttes and Red Shirt Table roads to U. S. Highway 18. Connecting links in the reservation road system, these roads will provide access to Red Shirt Village and school bus service to the newly constructed Oglala No.5 Day School operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Seven bids ranging to $239,210.52 were received for the project.
Grading and gravel surfacing work will be done on 9.4 miles of the Big Bend Farm Station road under the Crow Creek contract for $180,6/+1.19. This road provides access to a recreational area on the north shore of the Big Bend Dam Reservoir, as well as farm-to-market and mail route service in the Hughes County section of the Crow Creek Reservation. Brezina Construction Company, Inc." of Rapid City, South Dakota, was the successful bidder. A total of 12 bids ranging to $212,498.32 were received.
The Sisseton Reservation contract for $210,194.48 covers grading, bituminous surfacing, and construction of a bridge on 7.5 miles of a heavily traveled farm to-market, school bus and mail route road that extends east from U, S. Highway 81 toward Browns Valley. The contract was awarded to the John Dieseth Company of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, who submitted the lowest of six bids ranging to $266,060.94,
