Condition of gravel roads, hot topic at supervisors meeting

     After some members of the Jones County Board of Supervisors fielded calls from rural county residents regarding the condition of gravel roads, the topic dominated the Jan. 17 board meeting.

   “They’re bad,” Supervisor Jeff Swisher summed up.

   He shared with the board and County Engineer Derek Snead and Assistant Engineer Todd Postel that he was called out to 130^th Street that morning because a school bus was sideways on the road.

   “Do we need to go to hard-surface roads only with heavy vehicles?” proposed Swisher.

   Snead said road embargos really hamper the work farmers need to do.

   “Closing certain sections won’t help the situation,” he suggested. “There will still be ruts and rough spots.”

   He said once the ground re-freezes, that will help with the soft condition of the roads.

   “Our guys are out there now with rock,” Snead assured the board. “Most other counties are not out there now like we are. We put a lot of material out there and try to make the worst spots as good as possible.”

   Snead offered a comparison of Jones County with other counties in terms of expenses associated with granular roads over the last two years. Jones County has 644 miles of gravel roads, which places us in 59^th out of the 99 counties.

   “There is a higher percentage of paved roads in Jones County (in comparison) with the total miles of county roads,” Snead said for a county the size of Jones. “That’s higher for a typical county our size.”

   In Fiscal Year 2021, Jones County spent $1.6 million on contract rock. In FY 2020, $2.1 million. Snead said the increase is due to the horrible spring in 2019 that called for more rock that fiscal year.

   “FY 2022 was in line with what we spent last year,” he said of the $1.5 million.

   FY 2023 was budgeted at $1.9 million; Snead offered $2.2 million for FY 2024.

   The average price per mile is just under $3,000.

   “We’re in the top 20 as far as the amount of money put towards our miles of gravel roads,” Snead said.

   When the amount of material (rock) on the roads gets called into question, he said the data shows that Jones County is higher than the average county in Iowa when it comes to how much is spent and how much material goes down.

   “In the last 10 years since I started (as engineer),” continued Snead, “we put down 110 percent more tons.”

   He said as farm and construction equipment continues to get bigger and heavier, that has an impact on the county’s efforts on the gravel roads.

   The issue with the condition of the gravel roads, both Snead and Postel said, is extreme unpredictable weather.

   “We can’t do anything about the weather,” Snead said. “We’re putting significant effort into putting as much material down as possible. We have plans to increase the amount on our granular surfaces with an overlay lift. That will definitely improve the road conditions.”

   While Secondary Roads plans to increase the amount of contract rock this coming season, Snead said, unfortunately, they won’t be able to rock as many roads.

   It all comes down to money, though.

   “How much more money do we need?” asked Swisher concerning more rock.

   “How many less construction projects do you want to do?” Snead answered of taking money from the five-year road program.

   “What you’re doing is not working,” voiced Supervisor John Schlarmann. “We deal with this every year. We need to change the type of rock and figure out the funding.”

   “It’s a vicious cycle,” Postel said. “We cannot control Mother Nature. She threw us for a curveball.”

   “We need to get the base (of the roadway) built up,” suggested Supervisor Jon Zirkelbach, specifically pointing to Dales Ford Road.

   Snead said the conditions of the roads were a lot worse back in 2019.

   “We need to figure out a revenue source,” Swisher said.

   Snead said not much could be done aside from raising taxes. Swisher said people he’s talked to throughout the county are fine with an increase in taxes as long as it goes toward more rock.

   “There is no ability to increase the revenue we receive for the Secondary Roads Department,” added Snead. “Every single year, my budget has decreased.”

   Schlarmann said when people see that Secondary Roads is buying new equipment and building new shops, they ask why they can’t get more rock. While the supervisors know those projects all stem from different funding sources, he told Snead the general public doesn’t get that.

   Snead said with his department caught up on equipment and facility improvements, those items won’t appear in his budget as frequently.

   But, he said costs have gone up, so it’s not as though his budget will reflect less spending.

   “I’ll budget a 0 percent increase in expenditures because we’re in a position to do that,” he told the board. “But we’ll spend the same amount on rock.”

   “We need to increase that,” urged Zirkelbach.

   Snead said aside from moving LOST (local option sales tax) from road construction projects into contract rock, there’s not much that can be done.

   “There are no special grants out there. Those don’t exist. You (the supervisors) have the ability to change the tax levy,” said Snead.

   Swisher asked if spot rock could be increased on those roads that don’t get as much contract rock.

   “That doesn’t work and it costs more,” said Snead.

   Postel said as it gets colder and re-freezes, the roads will harden again.

   Several years ago, Secondary Roads switched to 1-inch rock. Postel explained it works better and performs better on the roadways.

   After years of putting down 400 to 500 tons of rock a mile, he said they’re looking at doing 700 to 800 tons this contract rock season.

   Dan Kuper and Jeremy Rickels, both residents on Dales Ford Road, also shared their concerns.

   “We understand that the roads are bad,” said Kuper. “We’re not looking for special treatment, but we’re asking if we can get more rock.”

   Both said their road hasn’t been bladed near enough as neighboring gravel roads.

   Rickels said Dales Ford needs a crown on the roadway, which he felt would help the situation. He said people’s vehicles are being damaged due to the poor condition of the road.

   “Bringing the maintenance up to par would be huge,” he said. “We feel neglected.”

   “We have plans to increase surface overlays with rock this year,” offered Snead. “We’ll increase the amount of spot rock. We’ll put extra attention on the re-occurring areas.” “This isn’t magic though; these are short-term improvements. We can only do (so much) with the money allocated.”

   “We just can’t let this keep getting worse,” Schlarmann said.