Judge: County work crews out repairing roads

The St. Francis County Road Department is hard at work repairing roadways throughout the county following the ice storm at the end of January. SFC Judge Craig Jones said the department is currently running six road graders in an effort to repair gravel roads throughout the county. "We have also been putting out a lot of gravel as well because the roads were just mush after that ice storm came through. We have been looking at some of the bad roads that we have and we have been putting gravel out on them," said Jones. "We still have a lot more to go. We got five new road graders in and I have all five of them, plus an old grader rolling. We have six graders running right now. We are trying to get these roads worked up now while there is plenty of moisture in the ground." Jones said the county ordered two more sets of chains for road graders to help handle future ice storm road issues. "We had a meeting after the ice storm to get our roads outlined for the next time we have snow or ice," said Jones. "We know what we did good and what we didn't do good. I think. overall, the county did really good. The grader chains really did good work. We got a lot of ice off of the road. We had two graders last time and we ordered two more sets of chains so we will have four graders running the next time we have an ice storm like that." According to Jones, the road department is also working to repair issues on asphalt roads in the county. "While it is cooler or wet, our asphalt roads will be patched with class seven or SB2," said Jones. "We will go out and put the SB2 down and it will help a little bit, but it doesn't help forever. We come back later after it has packed in those holes and we cover it. We get that gravel in there first and then come back after it warms up a little bit and put the cap over the top of it. It really helps." Jones explained that the department first puts down state base 2 (SB2), into potholes before coming back to repair the road with asphalt. "Usually, that is what we do first anyway," said Jones. "We put that gravel in first then come back with the overlay. It has warmed up enough that our road department is out there putting out patches now, but it looks like it is going to get cooler again soon. You will see us out putting down gravel first and you may think we aren't coming back, but we take note of where the gravel has been placed for us to come back and fix it."Jones said the patchwork is faster during the summer, although it has been warm enough for some patchwork to begin. "In the summer, when it is hot, we can put the gravel in and cap it at the same time," said Jones. "They are doing some patchwork right now. We had a good week last week but it looks like it is going to get cooler again next week. We aren't through with it, the cold weather, but maybe we are through with the winter precipitation. We learned a lot this year from that snow and ice storm and we will be better prepared next year. I thought we were good and prepared this year, I thought the road department did an excellent job." According to Jones, there have also been issues with culverts in the county and crews are working to get those replaced ahead of rain. "We have been replacing culverts in a lot of areas," said Jones. "A culvert has about 12 years of life and a lot of them need to be replaced. We have been replacing the worst ones in the county at the moment. We are expecting to get a lot of rain this upcoming week. The culverts are very important so that is what we are doing right now." Jones explained that the sales tax has generated enough funds for him to purchase two new mowers, five new road graders and a sprayer truck on a payment plan for the county. "We recently had two sidearm mowers delivered," said Jones. "These were delivered on Friday, thanks to the sales tax. The sales tax has allowed county general to buy several new items. We got the road graders, we have two dump trucks coming later and the two side-arm mowers. The sales tax did not generate enough for me to buy them all at one time, but I put them on payment plans, but it allowed me to have the money to make those payments." According to Jones, this new equipment will help with issues that were seen throughout the county last year. "The side-arm mowers will start mowing very soon," said Jones. "Last year, we couldn't keep two tractors running to save our lives and a lot of the time we didn't have any tractors running. Johnson grass was everywhere and it was a mess. We are going to have it a lot better this year. We have a sprayer truck and these two mowers that should really help us keep these right-of-ways knocked back a lot better than last year. Last year was terrible because we just didn't have the equipment to do a whole lot." Jones expressed hope that residents would remain patient with the county as they work to get roads back in good condition throughout the area. "We ask residents to be patient with us. We are trying to get the roads repaired as quickly as we can," said Jones. "Let us know about issues with roads. We need to know. Let us know what is going on and be patient with us. Make us aware of these roads and we will get to them when we can. We have 800 miles of county roads and we are doing what we can. We had three road graders last year and we have doubled that number this year, so hopefully, that will help. With the equipment we have now, we are in a better place to maintain these roads."

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