Supervisors spend considerable time discussing the rural roads

During a portion of his time in front of the Board of Supervisors this past Monday, County Engineer Adam Clemons went over several items and one of those took some time as the Board debated the rock vs. gravel issue.

According to Clemons, there are 792 miles of granular surface roads in the county with just over 292 miles of those being rock and the rest gravel. It costs the county approximately $580,000 per year for the total granular (both rock & gravel) program. If he were to convert to all rock, it would be over $1.184 million to do that, which is an increase of nearly $604,500. It would take three years to fully convert all roads to rock county-wide.

“We have already used a 60/40 blend for about the past three years, and it has worked well,” said Clemons. He said it would come out to over $429,700 per year more than it takes now, and that it would be a bit less than the conversion price. “Can it be done? Most likely,” said Clemons. “What roads do we pick? How do we know?” No decision was made at this meeting, but likely it’s not the last we’ll hear on the issue.

Other items were presented by Clemons, which included looking at his recommendation of hiring a service mechanic for his department. “It’s about trying to keep the guys on the road,” said Clemons. He explained that currently they do the oil changes on their own trucks. While he doesn’t have anyone specific in mind at this time, he would simply like permission to post the position. “I think we can cover it (in the budget), because they’ll be some reimbursement from the Sheriff’s department (the person would also be responsible for that vehicle fleet),” said Clemons. The Board approved the request.

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