Jefferson County Supervisors approve rock purchase

FAIRFIELD — The Jefferson County Board of Supervisors approved a contract Monday with Douds Stone to purchase 70,000 tons of rock for gravel roads.

The county will pay just over $800,000 for the stone, which will go toward 70 miles of gravel roads in greatest need of repair. Jefferson County Engineer DeWayne Heintz said that, after accounting for hauling the gravel and compacting it, the project will cost the county between $1 million and $1.4 million.

Heintz said most of these 70 miles of gravel will be rocked this construction season. He said the decision about which 70 miles of road to repair was determined by himself, road superintendent Billy Droz and Heintz’s assistant Thomas Ensminger, plus the seven grader operators who are in charge of the county’s seven road districts. The grader operators drafted a list of 20 miles of gravel roads that needed the most repair, and the staff then chose 10 miles from each district.

“We thought that was a doable number of miles that we could accomplish this spring and summer,” Heintz said. “These are highly traveled roads, and the ones that show the most wear and tear.”

Heintz said the county had been putting down 300 tons of gravel per mile, but that has proved to be insufficient. For the immediate future, the county will lay 1,000 tons of gravel per mile to get these roads back up to par. Heintz said the county has the money to do this since it is not spending as much on maintaining paved roads, because of the bond the county passed on repaving some of the major paved roads in the county a few years ago.

“To me, maintaining our rural grid is a high priority because farmers, livestock and grain producers need to get their products from the field to market, and maintaining gravel roads is a key element in that production chain,” Heintz said. “You can drive around this spring and see our crews are trying to take care of the worst of the wet spots. To really make a difference, we need to build a base structure with a crown that drains water.”

Heintz said that, after perhaps five years and 350-400 miles of fresh gravel, the county will be able to back off from its 1,000 tons-per-mile standard.

“Right now, we’re so far behind that we need to catch up,” Heintz said.

In other news, the county also approved a resolution selling a tiny patch of land in Libertyville to a neighboring business wishing to expand. The county owns a maintenance shed next to the Dew Drop Inn on Fairfield Road, and the Dew Drop asked to purchase a strip of grass about one-fifth of an acre that belongs to the county so it can expand its parking lot.

The patch of land measures 40 feet by 175 feet. Heintz said the county is not using the land now, so it was an easy decision to sell. Dew Drop will pay $7,500 for the strip of grass, and the county will move its fence that borders the Dew Drop property.

Supervisor Dee Sandquist said part of the county’s mission is economic development, so the supervisors are glad to help a local business expand.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com