State won’t take sides on lake roads
Staff writer
County lake resident Greg Wyatt, with the attorney general’s office unwilling to join the debate, again talked to commissioners Monday about roads in the residential area around the county lake.
He hopes commissioners will have roads maintained before spring rains cause multiple washouts.
Wyatt said Dwight Carswell, deputy solicitor general in the attorney general’s office, would not give an opinion on Wyatt’s request to force the county to assume maintenance of the roads because “of the fact-based nature” of the request.
“I asked him what he meant by fact-based nature and he told me that since our request was based on facts, there was no need for an opinion,” Wyatt said.
Whether the county should maintain roadways at the lake is a years-old debate. Wyatt has talked to commissioners a number of times in his belief that the county is responsible.
Commissioners have long held that since the roadways in the neighborhood are narrow and were built by people who built houses in the area, the county is not responsible.
Neither side has shown any inclination to budge.
In August, Wyatt said that if the attorney general’s opinion was in favor of the county taking over road care, he would take the county to court if needed.
“I know the county is coming back out this spring to fix the terrible conditions they left Lakeshore Dr. and 170th Rd. in this past fall,” Wyatt said. “I know they are to come and finish patching and doing chip and seal on these roads. While they are there they could be maintaining the other county lake roads as well.”
Wyatt told commissioners it was up to them to decide what kind of elected officials they were, and whether they were willing to work with the people and do what is right for them.
Commissioners listened but didn’t discuss his concerns.
In other business Monday, commissioners went into executive session to discuss purchasing a former lumberyard building, owned by commissioner Jonah Gehring.
Gehring recused himself from the session.
It now is used to store trailers and other equipment for emergency management and road and bridge department.
The county has rented the building, valued along with the land at $152,130, for $1,500 a month since last fall.
A few weeks ago, commissioners considered renting storage space in the former AMPI building in Hillsboro for $300 a month but decided against it because they thought too much work was needed.