Funds for county rock quickly being spent

About 31 percent of the county’s annual budget to purchase gravel for county roads has already been spent in six weeks.

The budget for rocking county roads is depleting quickly this year, and Jackson County Commissioners and road and bridge administrators are hoping to find a better solution for this ongoing issue.

At the commission’s meeting last week, Eric Fritz and Earl Bahret, road and bridge department co-supervisors, noted that $174,414 has been spent on 15,206 tons of rock for county roads since January.

The department’s rock budget for the entire year is $560,000.

Of the $174,414, the county has spent $70,253 paying for outside businesses, such as Prairie Trucking of Holton and Capital Trucking of Topeka, to haul the rock for the county.

If the county didn’t have this custom hauling expense, administrators could have purchased 10,347 additional tons of rock, Bahret said. The county hauls two-inch and one and a quarter inch rock from quarries outside of Jackson County, including east Topeka, Cummings, Atchison, Onaga and Wheaton.

There is a quarry in Circleville, but the rock there is reportedly softer than what administrators want to put on county roads.

Fritz and Bahret said they have to go outside the county to access quarries with higher quality rock.

The commissioners agreed, and noted they had received many compliments on the two-inch rock.

The commissioners, Bahret and Fritz discussed whether hiring a part-time employee to haul rock would reduce the county’s dependence on outside trucking companies.

Fritz explained that it would help a little, but that the trucking companies can run up to 12 trucks at a time.

“Sometimes we need some help, and last week we really needed it,” Fritz said.

Commissioner Bill Elmer, who worked as a road foreman for the county for several years, said that this is not a new struggle.

“We used to run out of rock money every year,” Elmer said. “It’s a losing battle, and the worst part is the unknown and what’s going to happen in the next couple of months.”

Commissioner Janet Zwonitzer expressed concern.

“We have a lot of roads in the county we haven’t even touched yet,” Zwonitzer said. “But you guys are doing a fabulous jobs of finding good rock at a quality price. I just get a bit uneasy seeing the budget so low at this point.”

Fritz said that the department put down more rock last year than in the past, but if a road doesn’t have a good base to start with, the rock won’t stay.

In December, Fritz noted that, in 2014, 50,000 tons of road rock was distributed throughout the county, which is 3,300 loads. At this time last year, the county had spent $25,000 in rock and $230,781 by July.

“Our number one goal is to make you guys aware of where we are and that something needs to change,” Fritz said. “It’s a problem that’s existed for a long time, but it has to be solved from both sides.”

 Elmer said that the rock budget isn’t going to “change overnight” but said something needs to be done for next year and everyone agreed.

“Someday we need to catch up and help you guys out,” Commissioner Rob Ladner said.

At the end of the meeting, the commissioners agreed to allow Fritz and Bahret to purchase and stockpile rock this week and then report back to them on prices.

“You guys are going to have to make some tough decisions on where the rock is going to go, and we’re going to stand behind you,” Zwonitzer said.

The road and bridge department currently maintains 46 miles of chip-and-seal roads, more than 700 miles of rock roads and 204 miles of dirt and minimum maintenance roads, it was reported.