County debates charging for special road work

By ERIC MEYER

Staff writer

County commissioners spent the bulk of an hour last week trying to come up with policies on how the county charges for special requests for wider culverts, additional road rock, and dust-settling sand.

Road and bridge supervisor Steve Hudson told commissioners he was uncomfortable dealing with requests from property owners without guidance from commissioners.

At issue was how to charge landowners who want to widen field-access culverts, have extra soft rock spread on roads leading to their farms, or have sand spread on top of soft rock to limit dust.

To avoid patching culverts with short pieces, Hudson was told to charge for the full length of materials used in widening culverts. The county does not charge for labor or installation.

“A lot of people are asking for a six-foot extension to 30-foot culverts,” Hudson said. “In order for us to do that, we have to dig it up, put in a straight culvert for 36 feet.”

Culvert materials cost between $35 and $40 a foot, depending on the diameter of the tube, Hudson said. He noted that 80% of culverts on roads leading to field-access culverts were only 30 feet wide.

“If you can’t use sections and you have to replace the whole thing, you know you’re talking about a lot of expense,” commissioner Kent Becker said.

Commissioners debated whether to charge for a second culvert to a parcel if, for example, a property owner wanted to locate a house on the property.

Becker suggested it would be nice to know what neighboring counties charge.

Hudson said Saline County charged full price, but commissioner Jonah Gehring said charging a fee might inhibit growth.

“If a culvert is coming in, you’re getting growth,” he said, “and you’re getting property tax with that. It’s growth potential. Someone who wants to live here increases our property tax.”

For farmers who want more soft rock on roads than the county normally would provide, Hudson proposed splitting the cost between the county and the landowner.

This, he said, would be consistent with current practice of having landowners pay the difference between hard rock and soft rock if they want harder rock on roads near their farms.

However, commissioners failed to arrive at a consensus on his proposal.

“So, what if you have somebody who feels like his road needs rock every six months?” administrator Tina Spencer asked. “He’s going to keep putting it on and charging the county.”

Gehring said he feared the county would be “billed out of existence.”

Commissioners discussed setting aside a fixed amount for such work each year.

“Whatever amount she’s put there,” commissioner Randy Dallke said, “you spend that. What happens? That’s done that for the year? Nobody else gets any?”

He suggested that Hudson would have to make decisions on whether additional rock really was needed.

“This is one of the biggest things Steve has to put up with,” Dallke said. “One person expects the cream of the crop and doesn’t want to see any dirt.”

Mueller responded: “That’s why I think he’s asking for some help in policy.”

To which Dallke replied: “If he makes a decision, what this board needs to do it back him.”

They did agree with Hudson’s request to charge a flat fee of $200 per load of sand to be spread on roads to reduce dust.

That wouldn’t guarantee that sand would be spread, however.

“Believe me,” Hudson said. “Delivering sand for dust control is on the very bottom of the list. I’m sorry to say that, but we’ve got school buses and people who need to get out and around the roads.”

Still, the option will be available.

“I’m sure there are a lot of people who are going to be happy to pay that rather than their house being full of dust,” Becker said. “If a house is close enough the road, it collects all of it.”

Specific policies will be drafted for formal approval at a future meeting.

“The Pandora’s box started opening with the [harder] gray rock scenario,” Gehring said. “I’m good with exploring that further and figuring it out a mile-by-mile allowance or something per year.”

Other business

At their meeting Dec. 23, commissioners also:

• Reviewed a policy drafted by Spencer and Hudson that was termed by Gehring “a starting point” governing use of county rights-of-way by utility companies.
• Ordered nearly $6,000 in replacement computers — five $684 laptops for themselves and two $1,273.35 workstations for the weed department.
• Hired Chris Sprowls at $50 an hour to photograph the courthouse clock tower while a lift truck is there repairing damaged louvers for the tower’s bell.
• Received a $2,000 grant from a state liability risk pool to help pay for courthouse panic buttons.
• Learned that the health department would be seeking bids on a refrigerator, residential range hood, and dishwasher for its new building.
• Met behind closed doors twice for a total of 15 minutes for what was reported to be an attorney-client discussion with counselor Brad Jantz of unspecified contract negotiations.