Road decisions put on hold for input from new engineer

Jefferson County Board of Supervisors approved a change in the 28E agreement with 10-15 Transit first, because Lee County is leaving the group June 30, and second, wording about negligence was changed to willful acts.

?Since this service began in 1992, the original agreement has put each individual county in charge of providing public transportation,? said supervisor Lee Dimmitt in a committee report to the board Monday.

?Actually, the county has no control over public transportation. The language was changed, after consulting with counsel, to say the 10-15 group provides public transportation,? he said. ?And Van Buren County brought up the language about hold harmless for negligence. If any county employee unwittingly does something that jeopardizes the agreement, which could be considered negligence and the county would be responsible. Changing negligence to willful acts reflects more the meaning of intent. If a county employee acts willfully to disrupt the agreement, then the county is held responsible.?

Dimmitt also said Walmart is discussing the possibility of running a Walmart shuttle through the 10-15 Transit on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

The board is still waiting to make an offer to one of two county engineer candidates interviewed to replace retiring Tom Goff. Supervisors have not received the reference checks back.

?Hopefully we?ll know soon,? said supervisor Dick Reed. ?I?d like to get someone in place to sit in with Tom before he?s gone.?

Packwood resident and owner of Middlekoop Seed Corn Inc., Jack Middlekoop, asked the supervisors about his road, 155th Street.

The previous seal coat has been torn up, except for a spot in front of his residence, which is still paved.

?My road was industrialized 30 years ago,? he said. ?It?s the only industrialized road in the county. Over the years, I?ve been taking care of it. In the last two years, nothing has been done [by the county] to keep it up.?

Steve Burgmeier, chairman of the board of supervisors, said his intention is to wait until the new engineer is on board and have him take a look at all the roads.

?Some things have been experimental, such as the molasses, and we?ve used bigger rocks in soft spots on Butternut Avenue to see if it holds better,? said Burgmeier. ?I don?t want to see a road seal coated and not hold.?

Middlekoop said 155th Street would need more gravel to hold a base, and could use a little crown, as it used to have, but it?s been flattened.

?That would be my intention,? said Burgmeier.

Reed said the area had a couple of bad winters previously that tore up seal coats.

?I don?t want to spend good money after bad,? said Reed. ?We?ll wait until we change engineers. I?m not blaming Tom, and I?m not throwing a bunch of hope on a new engineer, nor will I micro-manage an engineer.

?You being here brings all this to the forefront for us about the road being torn up.?

Next year might be the year the state can raise the gas tax, said Goff, meaning there might be more funds available for road work.

?What?s been done to the road has prepared it for the next step,? said Middlekoop.

He was interested to know if there is a next step.

Having the road classified industrialized means Middlekoop gets no homeowner?s tax rollback, said Reed.

?He pays 100 percent on his valuation, or $3.01 per $1,000 goes to road tax,? said Reed. ?Most of the industrialized road tax goes to the school district, not the county.

Goff said he has three rough road locations to check.

?Hard-surfacing new roads is against the trend right now,? he added.

Goff and the supervisors planned to take a road-check trip in the county Monday after the board meeting and will review 155th Street and a culvert on Brookville Road.

Another resident, Dave Harper, asked the board about his request to install a 12-inch culvert in front of his house.

Goff advised him that he had filed an entrance permit, while he actually needed a right-of-way permit. Goff directed him to the county website for the form and once it?s filed, Harper has permission to install the slip-line concrete culvert.