By Michael Howell
Last week the County Commissioners agreed to transfer about $24,000 in emergency funds to the Road and Bridge Department for the purchase of materials to help repair over 40 road washouts on various roads throughout the county. The washouts were created by the unusual weather event that had many county roads around the valley looking more like streams for a couple of days in March.
Road and Bridge Department Administrator John Horat said that the work crews had repaired about half the known washouts on county maintained roads and had about 20 more to address but were running over budget. He said overtime pay was also going through the roof, first by the unusual amount of snow plowing that was brought on by the late season storms, and then by the unusual amount of road repairs that are needed.