Road Responsibility Discussed At County Supervisors Meeting

Supervisors discussed the confusion between voting districts and road districts in the county during Tuesday morning's meeting at the Antelope County Courthouse. 

Voting districts are equal by population of people while road districts are divided up equally in miles. Therefore, the area of roads a supervisor is responsible to oversee may or may not be in the district of people who voted him to the board.

This issue was discussed at length as supervisors work to make responsibility equal through the eventual hiring of a road supervisor, who would oversee all the county road workers, once the county moves from having supervisors to commissioners. 

In the mean time, supervisors can assure the roads are being maintained to the best of their ability. 

“I don’t care if they voted for me or not, I’m going to give them the best roads I can," said supervisor Charlie Henery.

They plan to draft an advertisement for the road superintendent position and discuss it at their next supervisor meeting June 14. This person would keep track of the hours of county employees, inventory in the county barns and fuel expenses. The salary of this individual would depend on their experience and qualifications. 

Greg Koinzen, who was appointed to fill the remainder of Harlan Brandt's term, also brought up the issue of liability on roads that are within the road agreement between the county and Invenergy. In the contract, it is stated that Invenergy is solely responsible for the damage they cause to the roads with their heavy equipment, not the day to day maintenance. 

Due to a few complaints about the roads under the agreement, supervisors will begin checking roads, they said.