County hears road woes

<b>By Libby Cluett</b><br><a href="mailto:lcluett@mineralwellsindex.com">lcluett@mineralwellsindex.com</a>

PALO PINTO – In addition to historical topics, Monday's Palo Pinto County Commissioners' meeting had its share of kudos, complaints, queries and personnel issues.

After a closed session at the end of the agenda, County Judge Mike Smiddy announced Theresa Gilbreath as the county's newest employee. She will serve as the Public Works Secretary and 911 Addressing Coordinator beginning Nov. 16.

“She was the unanimous choice of the selection committee composed of [Public Works Director] David McDonald, [Precinct 2 Commissioner] Ed Laney and myself,” he said.

Smiddy said Gilbreath comes to the county from her part-time position with the Mineral Wells Chamber of Commerce.

Also after the closed session, commissioners approved an undisclosed settlement “as negotiated” in the litigation between the county and former 911 addressing coordinator Juanita Huddleston.

“The agreement in the Huddleston matter is confidential according to its terms. There can be no comment other than that the matters have been settled to the satisfaction of the parties,” said Smiddy.

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Earlier in the meeting Fortune Bend Road resident Butch Orr told commissioners about the “drastically bad shape” of the 11.5-mile road leading to his home.

Orr started out asking a question and Commissioner Laney responded. Orr shared photos of a part gravel, part dirt county road pocked with holes and erosion.

“I'm not satisfied with it either,” Laney said of Fortune Bend Road. He told Orr that his crew was working on the road Monday, as they spoke.

“Butch, we're not sitting on our hineys,” said Laney. He told Orr and the court the Precinct 2 crew was busy on other projects, including repairing roads in other parts of the precinct (north of Oran and around the Hayes Road area), fixing a damaged bridge, dealing with October's dampness and helping to clean up a county-owned cemetery in his precinct. He told the Index this took two days recently, which were wet days, when he could not work on roads.

Laney said since he has been in office they have put 130 loads of gravel on Fortune Bend. Sixty were paid for by ConocoPhillips, which he said has operations in the area.

“I have five guys … my guys are working as hard as they can work,” Laney said, adding that new wells and trucks are tearing up the roads in his precinct. “I have 130 miles of road and you have 11 miles down there. I try to get a project done and move on.” He later told the Index, “We treat every gravel road equal.”

He told Orr that his foreman keeps a log of work for every day and the log is an open record for him or any member of the public to see.

“You've told me what's wrong,” Laney said to Orr, “Now tell me a solution.”

“That's the reason you got elected,” said Orr.

“To fix Fortune Bend Road?” asked Laney.

“To fix all the roads in your precinct,” Orr replied.

In a discussion later, Laney told the Index that his crew puts down gravel road base and then tank trucks come through and push the new gravel aside.

When asked about patching the holes, Laney replied, “You can't patch a hole in a gravel road. There's not a substance that will stay in there.”

Laney explained that ways to care for a gravel road are by using a grader to smooth out the road and bring gravel back in.

Another way that he said takes time is using one of the county's 2-year-old zippers; but there must be enough base (gravel) for that. “You can't do it in dirt,” he said.

Finally, he said gravel roads can be “star-fired.” He said this method tears up the road, which is followed by a water truck and a compactor. However, Laney said half a mile, using this method, would take a day and it would last for six months.

“[Tank] trucks run 24 hours a day,” Laney said of the heavy trucks using Precinct 2 roads. When asked, he said the new wells are within the first mile of Fortune Bend Road.

“I don't know the answer,” he said of staying on top of oil and gas production truck damage. “Do we have to do more? Yes, certainly we do. I need more money and more manpower.”

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In other business, commissioners:

• Approved 3-2 to add the “Craig Crawford Memorial Scholarship” to the list of organizations available for juror reimbursement donations.

Mineral Wells Councilman and Weatherford Police officer Chris Crawford addressed commissioners about the scholarship, which was created in 2003 to honor the service of his late brother, Mineral Wells Detective Craig Crawford. Crawford was killed in 2002 in a traffic accident.

Chris Crawford explained that the scholarship benefits Mineral Wells High School students interested in careers in law enforcement and students attending the Weatherford College Police Academy.

Smiddy and Laney said the cause is worthy, but both voiced their concern about opening the door to other community scholarship programs wanting to be added to the list. However, commissioners Mike Pierce (Precinct 3), Beth Ray (Precinct 1) and Jeff Fryer (Precinct 4) approved adding the law enforcement scholarship fund to the juror donation list.

• Conducted a public hearing and approved replatting of numerous lots (514-524, 528-570, 633-654 and 727-795) at The Hill Above Possum Kingdom Lake subdivision, phase 3.

• Elected to cast 216 votes each for current Palo Pinto County Appraisal District directors Bill Arneson, Hugh Harris, Bob Leach, Carlton “Butch” Stagner and Jerry VanNatta.

• Reduced speed limits on Loving, Hurst, Holt and Ledbetter roads to 20 miles per hour. All four roads lie in Precinct 2. Laney said they are all dead-end roads and residents requested the speed limits.

• Approved a petition to close a portion of a road no longer in use between Upper and Lower Lee Roy Gordon Trail in Precinct 3.

• Proclaimed November as “Home Care and Hospice Month” in Palo Pinto County and encouraged the support and participation of all citizens in learning more about the home care concept of care for the elderly, disabled and infirm.

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