County refuses to pay for work it didn’t get to

By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

The owner of a Goessel golf course who did a favor for the county road department found no favor among commissioners Monday when they denied his request to be paid for cleaning out his ditch.

Myron Schmidt has allowed county trucks to park in the Pine Edge Golf Course parking lot on 130th Rd. east of K-15, superintendent Jesse Hamm said. A clogged ditch by the course has been on Hamm’s agenda, he said, but it hadn’t been touched.

Tired of waiting, Schmidt cleared the ditch himself, and asked to be reimbursed $375.

Schmidt told commissioners the road is heavily traveled by many trucks because of a large dairy further down the road.

“I hear many comments on ‘What kind of roads do you have?’” Schmidt said. “It’s an embarrassment to the county.”

The road is so bad, Schmidt said, his wife phoned him before returning home from a church meeting to say she was on her way and if she didn’t show up, “You know where I am.”

He asked to be reimbursed $375 for clearing a ditch along his road after growing tired of waiting for county crews to do the job.

Commissioner Dianne Novak said the commission has made exceptions to its rule that people need to get permission in advance if they want to work on their road, but she was against reimbursing Schmidt.

“I think if you had come to us beforehand and asked us for permission, that would be a different thing,” Novak said.

Schmidt said he’d be happy to have the road rebuilt going forward, and commissioners agreed to redo the road, although they did not agree to reimburse him for the ditch work.