No more miles

It's been many years since even a mile of extra road was added to the county's maintenance list – and that's not about to change any time soon.

Unable to fund any road work above what the Road & Bridge Department currently performs, the county commissioners intend to stay the course when it comes to requests from the public for additional maintenance.

The commissioners made their position clear during a conversation with landowners who live off Old Sundance Road in the area where it meets Beaver Creek Road. Spokesperson Eric Akola explained that there is a quarter-mile section that landowners would like to request be maintained.

The reasoning for this is that snow tends to build up at a certain spot and it's difficult for landowners to push it far enough off the road to clear the problem in time for the next snowstorm.

The road does belong to the county, said County Attorney Joe Baron, but has been designated as unmaintained since the nearby subdivision was developed in 2005.

"The county allowed them to improve that, but with no promise of maintenance," clarified Road & Bridge Foreman Morgan Ellsbury.

The problem, explained Commissioner Bob Latham, is that the county has 630 miles of road that is not currently being maintained. If the commission decides to add any more of those miles to the maintained category, this will open quite the "can of worms".

There are a lot of county residents who would very much like to see the county take on maintenance of their roads, he said, but the simple fact is that it's not possible.

Akola asked for insight into the county's thought process when it comes to which roads are maintained and which are not. What criteria are used? he asked.

"In my experience it's always been based on historical [decisions] and since I've been here, nothing new has been taken on," said Ellsbury.

Ellsbury acknowledged that this doesn't exactly fit the description of criteria – it's just the way things are.

"There really are no criteria because nothing changes," he said.

Commissioner Kelly Dennis stated that the county simply does not have the funds to do what the commission would like to do – at this time, he said, there's about as much unmaintained road as there is maintained.

As to whether things might change in the future, all three commissioners agreed that it would be difficult to do much about the issue in the foreseeable future. While it would be possible to set up criteria for which roads should be maintained and which should not – such as usage and whether or not it's a through road – the county still cannot fund any additional maintenance.

As Ellsbury explained, the county would need to remove a mile of currently maintained road from its roster for every new mile added, and that's unlikely to prove popular with the people living on those roads.

The problem is only going to get worse, said Commissioner Fred Devish, with all the new subdivisions appearing across the county.

Consequently, the commission agreed to take no action on Akola's request and maintain the current strategy of adding no new roads to the maintenance list.