Morley officials don’t want county agreement to end

Board of Supervisors
By: 
Kim Brooks
Express Editor

     Morley City Council members Will Roller and Linda Jackson and Morley City Clerk Coleen Vanantwerp were present at the June 6 Board of Supervisors meeting to discuss a letter they received from County Engineer Derek Snead.

     The letter stated that Snead wished to terminate the county’s 28E agreement with Morley concerning maintenance of farm-to-market road extensions within city limits.

     The agreement stems from 2005. It outlined that the county was responsible for County Road E-45 (Main Street) for the center 22 feet of the roadway, plus the shoulders. The City of Morley was responsible for the right of way outside of the 22 feet. In addition, the county was responsible for the pavement, traffic services, drainage, winter maintenance, bridges, and shoulders and guardrail. The city was responsible for the same services, but on their portion of the roadway.

     The agreement also stipulated that the county would reimburse the City of Morley $1,500 from the Road Use Tax Fund for some of the maintenance on the FM extension. Vanantwerp told the board that those funds were used for the traffic lights along E-45.

     Despite wishing to end the agreement, Snead’s letter did state that the county planned to extend its E-45 resurfacing project into the city limits.

     Snead told the board the reason for terminating the agreement is that the services Morley was providing are no longer needed.

     “Typically as a county,” he said, “we don’t require cities to have lights at each intersection.”

     For example, when Center Junction became unincorporated, the county did away with many of the streetlights in that town, only leaving a couple as destination lights.

     “The lights were either shut off or residents decided to maintain them,” explained Snead.

     He added that the traffic count doesn’t really justify the need for destination lighting.

     Vanantwerp said she was notified of Snead’s decision on the agreement and asked the supervisors for some time so the Morley City Council could discuss the issue as well before a final decision is made. She said the lights are needed as a safety factor with the speed at which vehicles travel on E-45.

     “There have been some near-accidents,” she said.

     Vanantwerp said she’s aware that the county budget is tight, and that all government entities are dealing with tight budgets at the moment.

     “The $1,500 helps a lot for Morley,” she said. “I’d like to see if we could come to an agreement.” Morley already included the $1,500 in their Fiscal Year 2018 city budget.

     “We always had a good working relationship with the county and would like to continue that,” added Vanantwerp.

     “Essentially Secondary Roads was paying for the streetlights,” commented Snead.

     Vanantwerp said when the lights were upgraded to LEDs, the average monthly bill went down. Morley said the extra funds go toward road maintenance.

     Roller echoed Vanantwerp’s sentiments about safety on E-45. “The lights are a security issues,” he said. “We have a nice little community and the lighting is a big portion of that.”

     Snead said the county/Secondary Roads does not have any other agreements like this with other cities/towns in the county.

     “Morley is the only one we had the agreement with,” he said.

     Assistant Engineer Todd Postel said once the Engineer’s Office has the plans finalized for the E-45 resurfacing project, they will plan to visit with the Morley city officials.

Category:

Subscriber Login