County road complaints aired at commissioners meeting

The condition of some county roads was again lamented by residents this week at a Cheyenne County Commissioners meeting.

For the second time in three months, a handful of county residents appeared before the board of commissioners to voice concerns regarding the state of unpaved roads that crisscross the county.

On Monday, Nancy Rankin said a section of County Road 149 is in disrepair.

"I have driven that road since I was 17," she told commissioners. "I know what it's supposed to be like."

She provided recent photographs of the road and said the hilltops have become dangerously narrow.

"The road must be maintained on a regular basis," she said.

Even the door on her vehicle now rattles after travelling the road, she added.

The road used to have culverts and wide hilltops, Rankin said, but over the years it has been deteriorating.

County Road Superintendent Tom Noel said gravel was applied to the road two months ago. He explained sections of the road are very sandy and it's difficult to get the gravel to stay.

Noel also said a lack of resources – both equipment and workers – makes it difficult to keep up with road repairs in the county.

Jason Frei, accompanied by a group of six other county residents, said he was also concerned about the shape of county roads.

In past years, he said, the county used a piece of equipment with a conveyor belt to collect gravel that had fallen in the ditches and reapply it to the roads. He asked if the county still had the equipment.

"I do," Noel said. "But I don't have anyone to run it."

Recent rainfalls have already put him three weeks behind schedule, he added. Combined with limited resources, road repairs have been complicated, he said.

"It's frustrating," he remarked.

In an interview following Monday's meeting, Commissioner Philip Sanders said the condition of rural country roads has been deteriorating over the years.

"I've lived in the county most of my life, and if you live in the county and drive gravel roads, there's always going to be days it's bad," he said. "My problem is I see this deterioration."

He's concerned the state of the roads could lead to a bad crash.

"And it doesn't need to happen," he said. "There are things we can do to fix that."

He said county road maintainers are doing a good job but they're stretched thin – and the weather hasn't helped this year.

"This spring has definitely been challenging," he said. "When you have 15 to 20 inches of rain, which is more rain than virtually anybody in this county has ever seen, it's going to be a bigger problem, naturally."

The commissioner warned that financial restraints are a real problem.

"When you look at what it costs to buy a new maintainer or a new belly dump truck, it's just a huge amount of money to do any of that," he said. "Our equipment is getting old and it's getting worn out, and we're going to have to start replacing it – and we really don't have the money to do it."

Over time, the staff of the county road department has also been reduced.

"As people quit, the positions were never rehired," Sanders said. "They just didn't rehire because of money constraints – there wasn't enough money. It looked at the time like it was a good idea, but now you look back and you're looking at what it has cost us in the long run."

Residents' complaints at Monday's meeting were another reminder that something must be changed because conditions are getting worse, not better, Sanders said.

"I know what the problems are, they're so easy to see," he said. "But how do you fix it when you don't have the money?"