March 28, 2024

Supervisors’ rock talk ends smoothly

Engineer’s contract rock hauling changes a ‘good first step’ for county

County engineering crews have changed their contract rock hauling program for the next fiscal year after two weeks of open meeting discussions with the board of supervisors, which prompted long debates and demands to find an alternative method of treating gravel roads.

Less than 70,000 tons of contract rock will be dispersed throughout the northern half of Jasper County. Adjusting for price increases, Jasper County Engineer Russ Stutt said if rock costs $16 per ton, then the estimated final total will cost roughly $1.1 million.

Roads that were originally planned for regrades this year will receive no contract rock; instead, about 600 tons of rock per mile will be hauled and placed by Jasper County engineer teams after cleaning ditches and reshaping those affected roads in need of extra repairs.

Also, roads the county regraded in past years will get about 300 tons of rock per mile. Every northern township and its respective roads will get approximately 140 tons of rock per mile, calculated by number of miles of roads in each township instead of a lump sum as in years past.

Supervisor Brandon Talsma, who in past meetings was very vocal about wanting a different direction or solution to the county’s gravel road issues, did not openly object to the new information brought before the board Tuesday morning.

“It’s a good first step,” Talsma said.

Doug Cupples, vice-chair of the Jasper County Board of Supervisors, was also pleased with the changes and commended Stutt for taking the time to individually meet with each supervisor after last week’s meeting to gather further feedback.

“I think this is a pretty good plan,” Cupples said. “It was helpful to get all of our inputs. You really did a good job of bringing that together.”

Two weeks ago, the county engineer proposed a $1.5 million project to spread 90,000 tons of contract rock along unpaved roadways in the northern townships. Talsma voiced his concerns the county could be repeating past procedures and was not adequately addressing the issues.

The supervisor, who previously noted he has been driving the secondary roads in the area all his life, argued the county would be wasting money by placing rock on roads, especially those with bad drainage or unstable surfaces. Doing so may leave newly added rock in ditches.

Stutt’s proposed changes to contract rock hauling seems to address this concern, particularly the roads planned for regrading and will receive double the amount of rock from county crews.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com