By Michael Howell
Last week the Ravalli County Commissioners received a petition bearing over 50 signatures and asking for road improvements along Nighthawk Lane in Hamilton. It’s not the only road improvement petition that the county has received this summer. The one they got in July from people who use Daly Avenue from Marcus to Golf Course Road contained more than 300 signatures.
The Nighthawk Lane Petition signers claim that their verbal requests for road maintenance to the Road Department have been ignored. The petition emphasizes the need to use the county owned asphalt paving equipment instead of smearing asphalt patches with a road grader.
“Our properties are devalued by deteriorated roads and inferior asphalt practices currently being performed,” states the petition. It is accompanied by several photographs, one of which shows at least five years of patching the same potholes.
In a letter accompanying the petition, Mike Huffman questions, “Who is overseeing the quality of work produced by our road department? Is that person on summer vacation or completely inexperienced in road repair? The current ‘concept patching’ is a total waste of our tax money.”
Huffman states that on August 8, 2014, the Board of County Commissioners laid off five employees at the Road Department. He notes that the commissioners specifically stated the budget issue is due to the $700,000 shortfall in Secure Rural School (SRS) funds for the 2014 budget. The county received those funds in April, he notes, but did not re-hire the people that were laid off. Instead, they approved spending $100,000 to hire five “temporary” employees in May, but no hiring was done until this past week when one temporary employee was hired. He urges the commissioners to re-hire the laid off staff, use the asphalt paving machine they own and “Do it once, do it right.”
The Daly Avenue Petition makes similar complaints about potholes, frost bumps, and breaks in the asphalt. The signers ask the commissioners to review plans for resurfacing the street and recognition that traffic has increased tremendously on the road.
“The street is a safety hazard, with cars dodging potholes and kids. Accidents just waiting to happen! Just watch out for the swerving cars and the students either walking to school or riding bicycles,” states the petition.
The petition claims that Commissioner J.R. Iman toured the street and said the potholes, frost bubbles and roadsides would be fixed, but when they made an inquiry with the Road Department asking when, they were simply told “soon.”
“It makes you wonder what kind of scheduling does the Road Department have? What’s wrong with sharing that information with the residents in the county when asked about repair work?” they ask. They requested an audience with the commissioners to present their request for reconsideration, review of the current priority list, and a traffic count, hoping to place higher on the list.
These petitions are not the only comments the commissioners have received about road problems. Reg and Mary Wilson wrote in July complaining about the potholes on Harvey Lane. They also complain about the line markings on the roads throughout the county being worn off and roadside weeds creating a danger at intersections by concealing small cars.
The commissioners have received complaints from the Victor area as well. Allen McClintick wrote recently about the “degradation” of north Meridian, north of Sweathouse Creek Road.
“The pot holes are getting deeper and the roadbed is in serious need of repair,” he wrote.
Ann Seymour of Victor stated in a letter to the editor, “Here’s a challenge for our five commissioners: Get in your vehicle and drive to Victor. Take the drive up Fifth Avenue to Pleasant View Drive. Then tell us if as an employer you would pay someone to do a job like that. Then go up and down the streets in downtown Victor – not forgetting Main Street – and then tell us the county should be proud of how our roads are maintained.”
On Monday, September 8, several of these people showed up at a Commission meeting to hear a “Road Update and decision on work plan.”
The Road Department Supervisor and Road Department Administrator and the County Commissioners talked a lot about the terrible spring weather and how it had thrown the Road Department into a tail spin with regard to regular work plans. The activity schedule that the Road Supervisor turned in reflects a large amount of gravel hauling for FEMA. FEMA officials agreed that the spring weather created an unusual disaster situation that, according to Commissioner Greg Chilcott, one official called “death by a thousand cuts.” FEMA offered funding for gravel equipment and labor that would cover 75% of the cost.
The Road Department Administrator said that the County had used two to three times the amount of asphalt for patch work this year compared to last, due to the unusual weather events.
The Commissioners got to hear many of the same complaints and some new ones, especially from people living in the Nighthawk Lane and Daly Avenue areas. They heard about unsafe driving conditions where drivers are dodging potholes on roads used by students. They heard from a realtor about the effects of poor road conditions on property values.
“I am extremely disappointed in the level of work I see,” said former Road Department employee Mike Wiles. He called the patch work a waste of taxpayers’ money. He invited the commissioners to visit Gold Creek Loop. He said the county’s patching program was like the guy who starts taking ten foot strides to save the wear and tear on his $10 pair of shoes but ends up splitting the crotch out of his $50 pants.
Chris Hockman and others questioned whether the county had done any planning or prioritization that the public could look at. He said the Board had let down the Road Department by not having any plan.
Commissioner Iman said he believed the board should address the petitions and get a traffic count done.
Road Department Administrator John Horat said that doing a road count would involve spending $1,000 for a software upgrade.
Commissioner Chilcott said that he did not doubt the citizens’ concerns, but “we’ve got to dedicate resources and prioritize… As a body we can’t respond to a single petition or we will get them from everyone. We need to dust off the old capital improvement program and update it.” He said that he was not sure what submitting a petition does except to provide some focus for the commissioners in their prioritization process.
“We’ve got to look at the county as a whole,” he said. “I think it’s fair to say that we heard from the citizens on Nighthawk Lane and Daly Avenue. We heard your concerns and we will be taking this into consideration when we look at our priorities and the resources we have to use.” He thanked everyone for coming.
A five-year paving improvement schedule covering 2012 to 2016 does exist but it does not include either Nighthawk Lane or Daly Avenue as projects.
An update of that schedule is currently being drafted, according to Road Department Administrator John Horat.