TORRINGTON – Despite a three-hour meeting that allowed an estimated 80 people to air their grievances about the condition of Goshen County’s roads to the Goshen County Commission, the retirement of former Road and Bridge Superintendent Jerry Hort and the formation of a five-point plan to fix and maintain the roads, some Goshen County residents still aren’t satisfied that enough is being done to fix the issue.
Several Goshen County citizens attended the GCC’s meeting on July 2 to speak out about the conditions of the roads they use every day. Sheen Conway, who has addressed the commission multiple times, reported that County Line Road is continuing to deteriorate, but still hasn’t seen a grader.
“We haven’t seen a grader,” he said. “When can we expect one? Are we going to see a grader this year? It’s in really bad shape. Do you guys have a plan worked up?”
Interim Road and Bridge Superintendent addressed Conway’s concerns, and told him that the department is formulating a strategy that would keep graders in different areas of the county, and each operator would be assigned to that area.
“We do have areas and we do usually try to keep those blades in those areas,” Hankins said. “Our new philosophy now is that we’re going to have those blades in those areas, and then we’ll have an extra floater that will jump around and work with them, or when we get emergency calls instead of pulling an operator from their area, we can have the floater that will work with them.
“That really puts a limit on what you can do in a day, if you’re pulling your guy off and handling other issues. It’s going to take a while, but that’s our plan and that is what we’re hoping to do.”
Commission Chairman Wally Wolski told the concerned citizens that the county is working on an accurate job description for the road and bridge supervisor to make sure the next superintendent is someone who can handle to county’s issue.
“As to the process of moving forward with getting a new superintendent, it’s not as easy as just putting an ad in the paper and seeing how many people show up for it,” Wolski said. We are going to be looking at the job description and asking ‘what are the skills we need for that next person?’”
Wolski and Hankins said the department is looking at training opportunities for grader operators through Wyoming Caterpillar, as well as other training providers.
Earlier in the meeting during her departmental report, Hankins told the commission that the biggest thing the department needs is manpower. Hankins told the commission that she has been evaluating the best ways to get the department on track since she took over last month, and told the commission it’s an uphill battle with the department’s current resources.
“The only thing I would plea for is that we need more manpower,” Hankins said. “We could use temporary summer help, more drivers, more blade operators. We’re down one more he’ll be done at end of month.”
While the budget for this season is limited, Wolski said the commission is considering a special use tax. Those tax dollars would be earmarked for county road maintenance and repair.
“Something the commission will have to do is to consider if there is any merit in placing a special use tax on the ballot for voters to consider and to designate that money for r and b use only, for maintenance and gravel,” Wolski said.
