Repairs on Sunflower County’s long list of deteriorating rural roads will wait a little longer for attention after supervisors on Tuesday agreed to look one more time at a coordinated plan of attack.
The board instructed County Engineer Ron Cassada and County Road Manager T.J. Fairley to come up with a schedule of work that will most effectively stretch the road repair budget. On Tuesday, Cassada presented preliminary numbers on several roads in need of repairs and urged supervisors to use them to create a prioritized scheduled for the work.
Cassada’s list showed the costs of the repairs using only county crews and equipment, using contractors to do the work or a combination of both. He drafted it in consultation with Fairley. The matter is complicated by several factors. The work will mostly entail rebuilding badly damaged sections of roads. County crews with limited machinery and manpower will repair the smaller areas not subject to heavy traffic. Larger areas that need more extensive work designed for heavier traffic would need contractors to rebuild the base and mix materials, with county crews to take on most surface overlays.
Further clouding the issue are state laws restricting how many new road workers can be hired during election years, the purchase of equipment during election years and newly enacted prohibitions against using state road tax money for salaries.
The repairs target roads not on the state-aid system which are built to state-mandated higher standards to carry heavier loads and traffic. The roads being considered are feeder roads connecting with state aid roads.
Their design harkens back to earlier days of agriculture preceding the behemoth machinery now being used. As a result, they are built to lower standards and not designed to carry heavier loads. Discussion Tuesday revealed that farm hauling trucks, some carrying loads in excess of 80,000 pounds, are seriously damaging these feeder roads. The county itself plans to sell its newest garbage truck because it is too heavy for many rural roads, sometimes sinking into the surface on wet days to damage both the truck and the road. It plans to refurbish older, lighter trucks to do this chore.
The plan Cassada presented Tuesday points out six roads which need attention for major repairs: Centralia Road from Dement Road to Highway 49 just north of Inverness, Charlie Ellis Road from Donahoe Road to Britt Road in the Boyer-Stephensville area; Murtagh Road from Highway 82 to Baird Road just west of Moorhead, O.W. Savell Road from Feedlot Road to Lombardy Road and Schillings Road from Grittman Road to Lombardy Road, both just west of Drew.
Repairs on these roads would entail the use of most of the road repairs funds currently available. Not included in the list were numerous smaller spots on other roads throughout the county that would be repaired by county crews.
Cassada urged the supervisors to consider the list and come up with firm plan on how to detail with them and setting prioirities for the work. He suggested developing a plan similar to the four-year road plan required to construct state-aid roads.
The ensuing discussion devolved into a debate, mainly between District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald and District 5 Supervisor Gloria Dickerson over details on how to make best use of the county’s road repair money and scheduling. However, neither took issue over the basic proposal.
Board President Riley Rice ended the debate when he told Cassada and Fairley to consult again and present the board with a proposal that they thought would make best use of resources.
During Tuesday’s meeting Board Attorney Johnny McWilliams reported that a plan to open a small store in the Eastmoor Subdivision just east of Moorhead is not allowed unless a majority of its residents agree to it.
At the board’s request earlier this month, McWilliams researched the matter to see if there were any restrictions against the proposal.
On Tuesday, he said a restriction allowing only residences exists in the subdivision’s deed. This means that the majority of the property owners must agree to allow it. One vote would come from the county board, since it owns property there used as a park. Supervisors hope to call a meeting of the property owners soon to decide upon the matter.
