Commission discusses adding three positions to road/bridge department

CHARLESTON -- Mississippi County commissioners will consider adding three positions to the county road and bridge department for 2009. One, however, would last less than a year.

Commissioners discussed several issues which will take further consideration for the preparation of the 2009 budget during the last county commission meeting of 2008. The meeting was held Wednesday instead of Thursday due to the New Year's Day holiday.

The county's excavators will be able to do all the digging for USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Emergency Watershed Protection Program projects on county Ditches 3, 10 and 14, according to commissioners.

"If we find an operator -- that will be the next issue," said Commissioner Martin Lucas.

Presiding Commissioner Jim Blumenberg said they will need to add someone to the county payroll for the duration of the project which is expected to take about 200 days. "We'll tell him up front what the deal is," he said.

Additionally, the county will need to bid out bulldozer work. "We don't have any way to spread the dirt," Lucas said.

As one of the first jobs he will take on as county surveyor, Lucas will do a cross section of the ditches and "see where we are," he said.

A printout showing the road and bridge revenue for 2001-2008 was handed out to Steve Jones and Robert Jackson, who were sworn in following the meeting for four-year terms as associate county commissioners.

Blumenberg said it is important they see the numbers and "get an idea of what we're looking at when we get back next week."

Total revenue for the road and bridge fund was $861,392 in 2001, peaked at $944,389 in 2005, and was down to $852,942 for 2008.

"And all the expenditures have skyrocketed," Lucas said.

And while the road and bridge department's budget is strained, Blumenberg said they still need to hire two permanent road and bridge workers in addition to the excavator operator for the EWP projects due to the worsening condition of the county's roads. There are currently nine employees at the county road and bridge department, not counting the supervisor, secretary and mechanic.

"You are going to get a lot of complaints -- get ready," Blumenberg advised Jones and Jackson. "We're getting in bad shape."

Blumenberg said he is hoping the pavement machine recently purchased by the county will help keep the county's blacktop roads in good shape.

Asked by Jones about the county's policy for county roads that residents pay to have paved, Blumenberg said the policy has been to require a 2-inch thick surface. The county then applies sealing oil to the road after five or six years which keeps it in good shape for 20 years or so, he said.

"It's a county road -- it has to be maintained to the best of our ability," he said.

Blumenberg said they will again do their best to budget for the department and "see how the economy turns."

Commissioners also approved a reimbursement not to exceed $250 for a county resident's tire damage from a pothole on Spanish Grant Road.

"It's a big one," Blumenberg said. "Huge."

Blumenberg said he would direct Richard Wallace, county road and bridge superintendent, to repair a few of the largest potholes in the county.