- Commission gets update on new county road shed project
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By Rebecca Dopp
Times-News Correspondent
Bob Garrett, County Road Department Supervisor, gave an update on some department related projects and concerns at commission meeting April 21.
• Garrett reported that the bid specifications for the county road shed were still not right. Although several portions of the specifications had been highlighted for changes by the county, not all had been made by the engineer.
He said that several things–concrete, wrecking of old building, electrical, and the specs for the steel building–that the county wanted bid out were not a part of the specs Garrett was questioning.
“It’s not that hard to bid out a steel building,” said Garrett.
“My question is,” he said, “maybe you guys know where we are at because I don’t. We just keep getting bills and more bills for changes, and nothing gets changed.”
Commissioner LuWayne Walker said he had assumed that the engineer had finalized the designs to move ahead.
Mike Seely, commission assistant, stated that he thought this was a contractual issue and should be addressed in a work session when Chairman Val Jones would be available (Jones was not present at this meeting).
“Let’s finalize this thing,” said Walker.
• Garrett reported that some of his workers had been out doing road work and had found some evidence of illegal dumping.
“There’s still quite a few people who don’t know where the landfill is,” joked Garrett. “They have been dumping in the cedars going into the landfill, up over the top, and on the Ingram property.”
He said that the sheriff’s department had been notified of the problem, but he needed to know what the commission wanted to do.
Commissioner Chad Winn said he would talk with Sheriff Alden Orme again and try to correct the problem.
• Troy and Trisha Rindlisbacher have made several calls to the county to complain about the condition of the road leading to their new home in the West fields. Mrs. Rindlisbacher said that there was no base to the road and during the winter it was almost impossible to maneuver on and created a muddy mess on their vehicles.
She said that contractors were not able to get to their home for fear of getting stuck in the mud.
“It’s either dust or mud,” she said.
Garrett said that there were some options to fix the conditions including gravel or putting down magnesium chloride to control the dust.
“When it [mag chloride] gets wet, though, it tends to get sloppy,” Garrett said. “The gravel will take care of the mud, but not the dust.”
Garrett said that his road crew had done their best to make the road drivable by grating it.
Rindlisbacher said they could live with the dust, but really wanted something done before next winter to take care of the mud problem. She suggested that maybe the west part of the road could be fixed now and then later on the east part.
“Something needs to be done,” she said. “It’s just not an acceptable dirt road.”
She said that she would like to come to an agreement with the county and have the road fixed. Commissioner Walker said that they had a long list of road projects for this year, but would try to add this road to the list.
“We know we aren’t the only road with problems,” she said. “We’d just like to get on the list.”
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