TxDot has just agreed to all of Grimes County’s recommendations about the 249 extension to Highway 105, near Navasota. County Judge Ben Lehman says he first approached them back in 2014, before he was even sworn into office.
Lehman recalls it was April or May when he first approached TxDot by writing a letter explaining his positions, which were different from other elected officials in Grimes at the time, among other things, strongly voicing his opposition to it being a tolled.
Back then, the judge tells Navasota News plans called for a toll-road with no Grimes feeders at all. And because they’d been in the works for some time, changing them looked insurmountable.
Lehman recalls it looked like a mountain, and they had few tools to use in dealing with it. So, with great help from Grimes’ State Senator Schwartner and Representative Schubert, the battle was on, including Lehman’s testimony before TxDot that denying Grimes access would be tragic to the county’s future.
The judge says he was tickled to death with that, because it started the concept that they understood what Grimes County is trying to say. Then, through a series of meetings they added five miles of feeders, which eventually became 11 miles of feeders and a few more crossovers.
Then finally, the judge reports TxDot has agreed that in addition to the frontage roads here, the complete section of 249 through the County of Grimes will also be toll-free.