County Road Department

[M.MM]

Maybe it would be wise for the comissioners to lay off ALL road personel until the weather dries up,beings how they can't really do anything right now because it's too wet? Can't blade roads in mud and can't haul rock in mud, why not save the taxpayers some money here!! Maybe they could start back up about July.

[jarhead]

M.MM,
You can't be serious !! Don't know much about the road crews except the ones here in Longton but I see them boys doing work on the equipment when the weather is bad and see them out cutting brush out of ditches quite often.

[srkruzich]

There is a spot on Rd. 9 that is a huge wash out.  It was SO sloppy that you couldn't hardly get through it at all.  They brought in rock and dumped it and it was fine for a day or two, but then you put all the dump trucks, semi's, trash truck and other big trucks that fly down this road as fast as they possibly can and all it did was push the rock up and out and made ruts so deep that the bottom of my Suburban scrapes.  It's pretty bad and jerks you from side to side going through it since the ruts aren't straight.  I suppose they'll be down to grade it as soon as it dries up, but right now it is pretty bad.  I guarantee you you wouldn't be able to get through it in a car or low vehicle until it's fixed. 

you can't even drive through it in a 1 ton.

[kshillbillys]

M.MM--Laying off the road crew is one of the stupidest ideas i've ever heard. That's like telling a dog with no teeth to bite somebody or telling someone who's being laid off to get mouthy with the boss so one could get shit-canned instead of laid off. As far as for the Road Boss, Ernie Lackey, being rude to the road crew I bet you would be hard pressed to find anybody down there that would say that to him, about him or even behind his back, and not for fear of having their ass fired or laid off, Ernie is a straight forward guy. You do it his way and that is the BOSS'S way. How many times does a person have to be told how to do something and then they sit around and gripe about it, "well that's not the way we used to do it?", then spew out hatred and discontent towards the road crew. It sounds like someone has it in for Lackey or the Road Department in general, almost as if they had worked there and are unable to work there again. M.MM, keep stirring the pot. Keep reading the paper and the forum "fishing" for something else to bitch about!!

MR. KSHillbillys

[peanut]

Hell yeah! I agree. And I didnt know people really are that stupid but reading these it is apparent that you all want something for nothing, Whaaa  Whaaa my road  or this road or that road and it should be this way or that. IT HAS BEEN TOO WET!!! any work getting done is happening first thing in the morning while we still have a partial freeze, when it thaws its over. people are just going to have to deal with it best they can till better weather

[Janet Harrington]

From R. Shackleford Consider this, most Police Departments employ 1 officer per 1000 people within their jurisdiction, Elk county has 3000 residents and how many deputies??  5 or 6? 

No.  Elk County has one sheriff, one undersheriff and 2 deputies.  I don't know how many part-time people the sheriff has, but he only has those 4 for full-time.  However; I did it with one sheriff and 2 deputies.  LOL

[R.Shackelford]

"Its been too wet" explains why nothing is getting done now, however, if the roads had been properly maintained in the past that wouldn't be that big of an issue.  Proper crowns and ditches allow for better drainage.  When you have neither of those you end up with the problems we have now.  Compound the lack of crowns and ditches with improper grading and you end up with roads in bad shape.  For example, when the roads were dry enough to grade but lacked sufficient material, instead of hauling more rock onto that road the graders simply cut the road surface to come up with material to fill potholes which causes an "eyebrow" on the side of the road, which in turn prevents the water from running into the ditch, which after time creates an even bigger pothole.  Or they simply lay rock over the top of the holes and hope that the rock will magically stay in the hole.  Every book and technical manual ever written on the subject all say the same thing, that the hole must be cut out, that section of road re-shaped, and then re-rocked. 

As for laying off the road crews, M.MM may be on the right track.  Let me explain.  The State is broke, Elk County isn't exactly rolling in taxpayer money.  We don't exactly have money to burn.  Every State in the Union is looking for ways to save money.  If we don't have enough work to keep our crews busy it doesn't make sense to have them all show up.  Laying them off would be a bad idea seeing as how the county has a hard enough time coming up with people that want to work for it anyway, however, having the employees taking furloughs might be an alternative worth looking at. 

[R.Shackelford]

Hell yeah! I agree. And I didnt know people really are that stupid but reading these it is apparent that you all want something for nothing, Whaaa  Whaaa my road  or this road or that road and it should be this way or that. IT HAS BEEN TOO WET!!! any work getting done is happening first thing in the morning while we still have a partial freeze, when it thaws its over. people are just going to have to deal with it best they can till better weather

What I want is for my tax dollars to be used wisely.  What I want is for the road crew to do what they are being paid to do, which is to maintain the roads in the proper fashion and to maintain the equipment the taxpayers of this county have paid for.  That doesn't include driving a loaded gravel truck 50 mph down a dirt road.  That also doesn't include sitting around the shop for an hour or so in the morning doing nothing.

[Wilma]

 

Elk County has one sheriff, one undersheriff and 2 deputies.  I don't know how many part-time people the sheriff has, but he only has those 4 for full-time.  However; I did it with one sheriff and 2 deputies.  LOL

Lloyd Ford did it with one sheriff, his wife and one dispatcher and a part time deputy.  My, how times have changed.

As for the roads not draining;  how can snow melt drain off the roads when the piled up snow is blocking the ditches?  The crews could have left the snow on the road to melt and everybody would have something different to bitch about.  Remember how much snow we have had?  Remember how our crews spent Christmas Day clearing the roads?  Memories are too short.

[Lookatmeknow!!]

You are so right Wilma!!  I can't say my roads are the best, but really doesn't bother me to much.  No can't drive the van to work right now, but you know what, it's cause it has a flat!  LOL !!  I just haven't had time to air it up and get it fixed.  I think we want champagne on beer money, all the way around the county!!  Sorry, but no one, and I mean no one is getting ahead right now.  Times are tough!  Do you think it would really be right to ask someone to take a lay off till weather straightens out, then when it does "Oh, we can use you now"!  Bad idea!  For one, put yourselfs in that person's, the road crews shoes!!  They, and the county do try.  So, budget doesn't allow for things, I am sorry I live with it.  I had to tell my 7 and 4 year old girls this morning that they couldn't buy any books from the book fair at the school.  Not that I don't think it would be wonderful for them to get one or two, but we just don't have the money now.  Are they hurting?  Not really.  We have alot of books around their house that they haven't read.
I just think you need to think of others to.  What do you do for a job?  Would you like it if someone layed you off or constantly complained about you??  When you were working hard?  Sorry, but I think that thinking of others is also not being done in this situation.  I am sure by the time summer gets here things, roads, will get better.