There is an old saying that when you realize you have dug yourself into a hole, you should stop digging.
That’s kind of what the Seward County Highway Department is doing.
The road crews have spent several months battling storm damage, heavy rains and heavy traffic often attributed to chicken trucks on some of the county’s roads. Combined with vacancies in their pool of drivers and operators, the situation has required choices be made between regular road maintenance or needed major repairs.
No one likes it – not the highway department, not the county commissioners, and not the people calling the commissioners to complain about their roads.
County Highway Superintendent Jon Regnier is pulling together a proposed strategy for the commissioners, perhaps as soon as July 29, to try something different.
What they have in mind is hiring a contractor to take on some of the priority road repairs while the county crew remains on its usual maintenance routines, covering for vacancies on the team.
“We are months behind in getting material out,” Regnier said at the July 21 Seward County Board of Commissioners meeting.
He expects the contractors to have the knowledge and experience to rebuild some of the damaged roads.
“If this is something that is going to happen, we are going to do it right,” Regnier said.
Board Chair Misty Ahmic said she thinks the idea is slowly moving in the right direction.
“I have full faith in our operators,” Ahmic said. “Those (chicken) barns have taken our people off their specific routes each time it rains. So this is why we get behind.”
Commissioner Raegan Hain also agreed with the concept, but said the county must do something to recruit and retain drivers and operators.
She said bringing in contractors is a difficult conversation to have.
“This is where we are at and it is an unfortunate situation,” she said.
Regnier contacted two contractors and learned that Gana Trucking of Martell would charge $210 per hour for a road grader and driver and $125 per hour for a dump truck and driver and Hartmann Construction of Seward would charge $165 per hour for a road grader and driver and $100 per hour for a dump truck and driver.
In a later interview, Regnier said it would certainly be less expensive to have county crews doing the repairs, “but it is getting the time and the manpower and the knowledge base. We have so many new people that just do not have the experience.”
Regnier has scheduled a training day for all roads department drivers in the coming weeks for them to learn or refresh their knowledge about road maintenance and repair.
He said when his newer drivers and operators are trained and have some experience, they can work up to doing some of the road repair jobs, as well.
“That takes time and experience and retention,” Regnier said.
He had made plans to meet with the two contractors and show them some of the priority roads for repair last week.
He is to return to the commissioners with options for how much could be accomplished on those priority roads and how long things would take, with commissioners saying they would like to see the project wrap up in six months.
But they noted that fall frost will cut off the time in which some of the major work can be done.
Commissioner Scott Pekarek said he wants to be sure any project undertaken is monitored for efficiency, and said project funding may be a challenge. Commissioners initially discussed options for using inheritance tax funds or normal highway department funding to pay for the project.
“The levy is going to have to move up to help these roads out because we are behind,” Pekarek said.
Hain said the county is dealing with a “different” budget this year.
“The Legislature changed how we are going to be able to do our budget,” she said. “After this year we will have at least a model.”
Ahmic said property owners expect their roads to be in better condition.
“If we do this one time, we will not have this in the future,” she said, noting that the road issues are a result of being behind on maintenance and repair over many years.
Commissioners also asked Regnier to work with the county attorney’s office on a contract to assure that if they decide to take this route, the contract can be finalized and the work would begin as soon as possible.
