July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Road clearing efforts criticized (2/2/04)
School superintendent critical of county
Efforts to clear county roads last week did not earn passing marks from the superintendent of the Jay School Corporation.
Jay County Commissioners and county engineer/interim highway superintendent Dan Watson said this morning that they had been contacted in the past few days by Jay School superintendent Barbara Downing.
All four men characterized Downing as critical of the way that the county went about trying to clear the county’s 700-plus miles of roads of snow and a sheet of ice.
Jay Schools were in session on a two-hour delay on Monday, but did not hold classes the rest of the week. School resumed without a delay today after warmer weather Sunday allowed county workers to make some progress getting the ice off the roads.
A message left for Downing at 10:50 a.m. today was not returned by press time at 11:30 a.m.
Watson, who was serving as interim highway superintendent until Ken Wellman began work today, said he felt comfortable about what he had asked county highway workers to do.
“I don’t think we can do anything differently,” said Watson. He explained that most county highway workers put in 12- to 13-hour workdays last week, and that hundreds of tons of salt and sand had been applied to county roads.
The county was out of salt this morning, but it was hoping to get more in today or early tomorrow in anticipation of more freezing rain and sleet in the forecast for tonight.
Watson said that the policy at the highway department — a policy that has been in effect for more than 10 years — is to apply salt to priority roads, intersections and other potential trouble spots.
“We’ll never have the ability to salt the whole county. No way ... we never have,” Watson said.
In response to an inquiry from Commissioner Gary Theurer about the need for more salt trucks, Watson said, “I don’t think you can let one week of weather get us to the point where we want to buy two salt trucks.”
Commissioners Mike Leonhard, Milo Miller Jr. and Theurer said they were not displeased with the job done by highway department workers.
“(All drivers) just need to use some common sense,” Leonhard said.
Also this morning, the commissioners made official the purchase of a building and lot near the Jay County Jail. The commissioners have said they are buying the current home of Hanni Plumbing Heating and Cooling at 215 W. Main St. as a site for future jail expansion but say that it won’t happen quickly.
The county plans to lease the garage portion of the building to Jeff Sprunger, who co-owned the building along with William Manning and who owns and operates Hanni Plumbing. The lease rate will be approximately $130 per month.
The commissioners approved an emergency claim for the purchase price of $163,000 from the county’s infrastructure money. Revenue in that fund is generated from a host community fee paid to the county by Jay County Landfill operator Waste Management.[[In-content Ad]]
Jay County Commissioners and county engineer/interim highway superintendent Dan Watson said this morning that they had been contacted in the past few days by Jay School superintendent Barbara Downing.
All four men characterized Downing as critical of the way that the county went about trying to clear the county’s 700-plus miles of roads of snow and a sheet of ice.
Jay Schools were in session on a two-hour delay on Monday, but did not hold classes the rest of the week. School resumed without a delay today after warmer weather Sunday allowed county workers to make some progress getting the ice off the roads.
A message left for Downing at 10:50 a.m. today was not returned by press time at 11:30 a.m.
Watson, who was serving as interim highway superintendent until Ken Wellman began work today, said he felt comfortable about what he had asked county highway workers to do.
“I don’t think we can do anything differently,” said Watson. He explained that most county highway workers put in 12- to 13-hour workdays last week, and that hundreds of tons of salt and sand had been applied to county roads.
The county was out of salt this morning, but it was hoping to get more in today or early tomorrow in anticipation of more freezing rain and sleet in the forecast for tonight.
Watson said that the policy at the highway department — a policy that has been in effect for more than 10 years — is to apply salt to priority roads, intersections and other potential trouble spots.
“We’ll never have the ability to salt the whole county. No way ... we never have,” Watson said.
In response to an inquiry from Commissioner Gary Theurer about the need for more salt trucks, Watson said, “I don’t think you can let one week of weather get us to the point where we want to buy two salt trucks.”
Commissioners Mike Leonhard, Milo Miller Jr. and Theurer said they were not displeased with the job done by highway department workers.
“(All drivers) just need to use some common sense,” Leonhard said.
Also this morning, the commissioners made official the purchase of a building and lot near the Jay County Jail. The commissioners have said they are buying the current home of Hanni Plumbing Heating and Cooling at 215 W. Main St. as a site for future jail expansion but say that it won’t happen quickly.
The county plans to lease the garage portion of the building to Jeff Sprunger, who co-owned the building along with William Manning and who owns and operates Hanni Plumbing. The lease rate will be approximately $130 per month.
The commissioners approved an emergency claim for the purchase price of $163,000 from the county’s infrastructure money. Revenue in that fund is generated from a host community fee paid to the county by Jay County Landfill operator Waste Management.[[In-content Ad]]
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