It took more than three times the half hour County Commissioners had set aside this week to impose new regulations on Grimes County’s Road and Bridge Department.
County Judge Ben Lehman began by restating his concerns from last week, believing the department’s facebook page should only be used to inform the public of its current road project and emergency updates.
Thanks to input from Road and Bridge Administrator Greg Blake, that was expanded to include burn ban information and definitions such as “washboarding.”
The discussion then turned to the best use of the nearly three quarters of a million dollars left in this year’s road and bridge budget; repairing roads damaged by the spring flooding, or paving some of the hundreds of miles of unpaved roads. Precinct 4’s Gary Husfeld argued the lion’s share should be spent on repairs. But Judge Lehman said he wasn’t so sure as many of the complaints he hears is about unpaved roads.
With Precinct 3’s Barbara Walker dissenting, the court eventually voted four-to-one to allocate 70 percent for repairs and 30 percent for new paving.