Commissioners hear more on roads at county lake
Staff writer
A man who sent a letter two weeks ago to county commissioners about the county maintaining roads in county lake neighborhoods outside Lakeshore Dr. attended Monday’s meeting to ask for answers. He also submitted a letter to the editor of the Record this week.
“What I’m here for is to present you with factual information,” Greg Wyatt told commissioners. “The county should probably be taking care of our roads out there.”
Commissioners referred his May 20 letter to county counselor Brad Jantz, who has not yet brought commissioners a draft of a response.
“You did a very clear job of presenting this thing,” commission chairman David Mueller told Wyatt. “You will get a response.”
Commissioner Kent Becker asked what Wyatt was wanting.
Wyatt said road maintenance had become an issue between neighbors at the lake. He gave an example of one neighbor rocking a portion of a road and the rock washing down to another neighbor’s driveway, causing confrontation between them.
“The people there would be happy with simple maintenance, being able to get in and out of the road and not go through the washouts,” Wyatt said.
Commissioner David Crofoot asked whether lake residents would be willing to pay a special tax for the county to take over road maintenance.
“They would be against a tax because they feel they already pay enough taxes,” Wyatt said.
Wyatt asked commissioners what kind of timeline should be expected to have the issue resolved.
“People are going to be very unsettled about this,” he said.
30x30 ‘land grab’
An issue batted around among commissioners over the past month and brought up again last week, the federal 30x30 program, inspired two people to comment online during the meeting.
Becker had listened to a speaker who promoted passing a resolution in opposition to the federal initiative. He then had the same speaker address commissioners.
Hesston resident Steve Schmidt, a Marion County landowner, said commissioners reached a consensus May 13 to get the planning and zoning board’s input and input from the county attorney, and give county residents “ample opportunity” for input on whether commissioners should pass a resolution opposing the 30x30 program in the county.
“I think any county resolution opposing President Biden’s 30x30 initiative should be thoroughly vetted so that unintended consequences do not arise later that might do more harm than good,” Schmidt said. “I am still very much opposed to anything in the resolution that would prohibit landowners from voluntarily entering into any legal agreement affecting their land, including entering into a conservation easement.”
Other business
In other business Monday, commissioners:
- Listened to officials of the 8th Judicial District ask for a $208,819.44 budget allotment. Last year’s budget request was $205,183.87.
- Heard Lori Siebert’s request for a budget allotment of $42,000. The conservation district has not asked for a budget increase since 2020. The request is for $625 more, Siebert told commissioners.
- Reviewed bids for professional landscaping services at the courthouse and accepted a $24,470 bid from Murillo’s Landscaping.
- Began early stages of budget discussion, including factoring in road damage caused by January snowstorms and employee pay scales.