Freeborn County commissioners are considering a 2012 county budget that could include possible increases for both infrastructure and capital improvement needs, according to Freeborn County Administrator John Kluever.

Kluever said, after a workshop on Tuesday set up to discuss the budget, it appears the commissioners are in favor of supporting increases in these two budget areas.

“We have a lot of roads in Freeborn County — both gravel and tar,” Kluever said. “Maybe 10 years ago, we started to fall behind the curve a little bit on upkeep and maintenance.”

He said the commissioners started to focus on catching up on upkeep and maintenance this past year and it looks as if they will do the same during 2012.

“Roads are very expensive,” he added. “If you start losing ground on those, it just gets worse and worse.”

The proposed increase for the Highway Department is about $289,000 — a 2.9 percent increase — and the increase for capital improvement projects is about $367,000.

Some of the capital improvement projects proposed to be completed in 2012 include a new roof for the Freeborn County Highway Department building, budgeted at $250,000, and several other technology upgrades.

During 2011, the big capital improvement project was a new roof for the Department of Human Services building.

Freeborn County Engineer Sue Miller is putting together a plan to have the county’s 24 timber bridges inspected. After the plan is in place, she will apply for state bonding dollars to replace the bridges as needed.

The Freeborn County match for that project is being budgeted at about $250,000, out of the general revenue fund.

Other than these budgets, Kluever said most of the other county department budgets are at the same level or lower than the previous year.

As of Thursday, proposed county budget expenditures for 2012 are at about $41.16 million, while revenues are proposed at $41.69 million.

This will also be the first full year the county will be paid taxes for the Bent Tree Wind Farm. Kluever said the county is unsure what this amount will be but noted they received at least $50,000 in payment for one month of operations in December 2010.

The townships also will receive revenue from the wind farm.

Commissioners will vote to set the county’s preliminary levy on Tuesday during their regular board meeting.

The preliminary levy has to be approved by Sept. 15 each year and can be lowered but not raised before the end of the year.