Magistrates question fairness of countywide right-of-way mowing policy
From right, Judge Executive Dean Watts, Magistrates Keith Metcalfe, Sam Hutchins, Bernard Ice and Jeff Lear. Not pictured is Magistrate Jerry Hahn.
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016, 11:40 a.m. — Nelson Fiscal Court met Tuesday morning and discussed county road maintenance as well as the allocation of county resources for paving and maintaining county roads.
Magistrates Keith Metcalfe, right, and Sam Hutchins listen during a discussion of the use of county road crews to mow county rights-of-way.
Boom mowing — a tractor operated mower than places the mower deck on an articulated boom — is used to mow county road rights-of-way, and has been in high demand this year due to the heavy rain fall this summer. Boom mowing is a service the county provides countywide at request of the magistrates when the county road department has the crews available to do the mowing. But Tuesday, the magistrates voiced frustration about how much — or how little — time they can get the boom mower in their respective districts.
Boom mowing has been stopped temporarily while the county road crews are needed to do hot-mix asphalt patching, county engineer Jim Lemieux told the court. Magistrate Keith Metcalfe asked Lemieux if he could be trained to run the mower because the mowing has stopped in his district.
Lemieux explained that the mowing is a slow process, and will begin full-time again when asphalt patching is done. Metcalfe said the mowing is only about half way complete in his district, but will continue into the fall and winter.
Magistrate Jerry Hahn suggested that the county consider a policy to make the use of the boom mower more fair to each district. Hahn suggested that each magistrate submit seven roads for boom mowing as priorities to better share the mower crew.
“It’s not right keeping that mower in one district all the time,” Hahn said.
“Well Jerry it was in your district last year, and never in mine last year,” Metcalfe told Hahn. Hahn suggested buying five boom mowers if the one can’t be more fairly allocated.
Lemieux said boom mowing will continue full-time through the winter.
The discussion prompted Watts to tell the court he could keep track of where the man-hours are spent among the county’s five district.
“We have a pretty good balance overall,” Watts told the magistrates. “You just don’t see it.”
Watts said after the meeting that the magistrates establish paving priorities in their respective districts, and they get an equal amount of money to spend on paving in each district. The county also receives additional state gas tax money — between $200,000 to $400,000 per year — and Watts uses that money to address road repairs based on need and public safety and independent of the magistrate’s priorities.
ROAD BOND FOR LOGGERS. The discussion on road repairs also touched on county roads damaged by logging operations, whose large machinery and oversized loads can damage county roads or shorten their service life.
Several county roads have suffered damage due to logging equipment, including Patton Road, which was recently repaired at least partly due to logging damage. Watts told the court that many counties require loggers to be have road bonds on roads the logging operation uses in order to pay for road damage. The court took no action.
In other business, the court —
— was told that the bids to repair Murphy Lane and Greens Chapel Road will be opened Oct. 11.
— approved releasing the performance bond for Mallard’s Landing and accepting into the subdivision roads into the county road system.
— approved a request from Magistrate Sam Hutchins to pave a section of Pottershop Road for $8,200.
— heard that the walking path at Dean Watts Park has been repaved where needed and completely seal coated.
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