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	Franklin County, Kansas, USA

2009-07-03

2009-07-01

2009-06-30

Agriculture

Lifestyles

County cuts road project

Increased costs, tax cuts could doom paving projects as residents ask for upgrades on rural roads

By The Herald Staff

The 13-Mile Program won’t be 13 miles.

Because of escalating costs of asphalt and because of cuts resulting from last year’s battle over the property tax levy, the project will be smaller.

County commissioners experienced some doses of road rage Wednesday concerning the 13-Mile cuts and some more over a minimum-maintenance road in southwestern Franklin County.

Cuts in the 13-Mile Program are inevitable, Lisa Johnson, interim county administrator, said.

“It’s not going to cover the entire project,” Johnson said. “You’re going to have to prioritize.”

Montana Road, which is Davis Avenue in Ottawa and one of the most heavily traveled unpaved county roads,was to be the centerpiece of the project.

In the original project, Montana would be paved from Sand Creek Road to Stafford Road. Shawnee Road from Montana Road to Ohio Road would be paved, and Marshall Road to Oregon Road to Rock Creek Road would be paved.

In addition, a one-mile stretch of Missouri Road next to a new U.S. 59 expressway would be into a full-maintenance county road.

What gets cut depends on what bids the county receives this spring.

Carrol Droddy, who lives along Montana Road and who has pressed the county to pave the road, asked commissioners pointed questions about the fate of the 13-Mile Project Wednesday.

“I had anticipated this,” Droddy said of the cuts.

Commissioner Don Hay said that Droddy deserved answers.

He told Droddy that it was likely that at least Montana Road would be paved.

The county has received a special $3.4 million low-interest loan from the state for the project but doesn’t have to start repaying it until the county begins drawing money from the loan fund.

The county had planned to repay the loan from a special tax levy for the County Highway Improvement Program. However, because the county is also paying off another state loan for the 36-Mile Program there wasn’t enough tax levy to cover both and during last year’s budget, former administrator Doug Harris recommended that the project be stretched out over two years.

Regarding the minimum-maintenance road in the 900 block of Georgia Road, Jed Hermreck, rural Williamsburg, and his supporters criticized the county’s position.

Hermreck built a new home along the road. He said he had been assured by a county employee that if he built the house, the county would improve the road.

Although Hermreck got permits for his house, the commission refused to budge from a policy that requires landowners to pay all of the costs to bring minimum-maintenance roads up to the county’s full-maintenance standards.

The county gave Hermreck an estimate of more than $13,000 to upgrade the quarter-mile section of road, which he called excessive.

Gene Hirt, Williamsburg, said that the county is violating other policies and is ignoring common sense by refusing to improve the road.

Hirt relayed information to the commission from state Rep. Bill Otto, who has introduced a bill that would have the effect of forcing the county to pave Hermreck’s road.

Hirt told commissioners that he had talked to Otto prior to the meeting and that Otto told him the bill had been assigned to the House Transportation Committee, where it is more likely to get a sympathetic hearing.

Johnson offered to discuss the situation with Hermreck.

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