Road Issues Dominate Commission Meeting

Wednesday, May 11, 2022
A local trash truck sinks into the muddy roadbed on County Road 160W-7 on May 10. The road is located in the Doniphan Special Road District and according to road district supervisor Andy Shands “a water line had busted in this area, the road was dug up and rock was not put back in, so it is soft.” Shands adds this road was graded Jan. 24 and again March 15 and will be graded within the next week by the county road crew. Shands asks that residents please call the shop number at 573-996-7491 and leave a message about road conditions.
Photo provided

Presiding commissioner Jesse Roy and associate commissioners Keith Whiteside and Gary Emmons listened to a presentation by Trey Reese and David Bays, representatives of Globe Life, a division of Liberty National Insurance, at the beginning of their regular meeting on May 4. The representatives said they were not interested in replacing any of the supplements currently offered to county employees, but rather wanted to offer additional ones. Some are available to employee family members separate from employee coverage.

After briefly discussing the request to meet with interested employees, the commissioners granted permission at a time to be coordinated through county clerk Michael Williams and department heads. Reese and Bays will create a handout with pertinent information and options for meeting times. Meeting separately with the sheriff’s office and the road department was suggested.

County road supervisor Dale Beston and Andy Shands of the Doniphan Special Road District discussed deteriorating road conditions due to recent rains. Commissioners were receiving calls from around the county - some complaining that roads had been graded and were fine before the rain, and some saying their roads had not been graded and were worse since days of additional precipitation.

Roy relayed one message that said, “U-2 looked really good last week before the rain.” County crews are doing what they can when the weather allows. Shands was planning to replace a tile on 142-24B.

Roy relayed information about a Facebook video on the condition of the road the Special Road District office is on. “We can’t see every problem that’s out there. We want residents to call us when there is a problem,” said Roy.

Whiteside urged county officials to make sure they are communicating with constituents, answering phones, checking voicemails and returning calls. “They just want to know they are being heard.”

Patience with crews and the weather is the flip side of that. Beston said 21N-18 had been graded the previous week but a car got stuck in the mud in a low spot just a few days later. K-1 is going to need two loads of gravel.

Calls had been received about New Hope Church road. Beston said it had been graded.

A bridge on DD-1 had been damaged in a storm. An official in the Ponder/Gatewood district will be contacted about that. Ideally a road crew could follow a grader to clean out the ends of the tiles along the route, but there isn’t enough manpower. “When it gets hot and dry we can pull ditches. We are aware they all need it,” said Roy.

Beston reported a resident off 142E was taking gravel off a county road and putting it in his driveway. The sheriff’s office was notified.

Lydia Keller, from Ozark Foothills Regional Planning Commission, brought in paperwork for commissioner signatures verifying they had chosen Smith & Company to do the surveying for the grant for Water District #2.

County treasurer Terry Slayton had been contacted by a St. Louis think tank for data on CARES Act and American Rescue Plan expenditures. Roy advised him to contact Alan Lutes at OFRPC for that information since they have detailed records of every penny spent locally.

An additional meeting for payroll purposes is scheduled for Friday, June 3 at 1 p.m. Williams will miss the June 1 meeting due to training. The courthouse will be closed on Monday, June 20 since Juneteenth (June 19) falls on a Sunday. Regularly scheduled meetings are held each Wednesday at 9 a.m. in the courthouse.

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