Oktibbeha County supervisors will allow the incoming board to decide whether to increase the number of county-wide road maintenance crews from three to four.
District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams pushed the issue Monday while the board discussed a bid process to replace a dump truck operated by the road department.
He motioned to start the bid process and add an additional road crew – a topic that has found plenty of debate this term – but Williams’ secondary request was met with resistance when District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard said binding the incoming board to the unbudgeted crew could face legal ramifications.
Currently, three maintenance districts are responsible for about 550 paved and gravel roads within Oktibbeha County. The three shops individually maintain about 180-185 miles of road.
A fourth district, Road Manager Victor Collins said, would reduce each maintenance crew’s service territory while eliminating the biggest problem workers face: long drives across the county with equipment.
“Simply going from point A to point B slows us down. When you shorten that trip, you get equipment on the scene faster, which means you get on the job quicker and get more done that day,” he said. “Our gravel roads have to be maintained more often than our paved roads, but we still have paved roads that have a lot of more work needed. (The overall county-wide workload) is pushing our guys to get everything done in a day’s time that needs to be done. If you add workers, equipment and then shorten the area, it would help out a lot.”
When proposing the expansion in 2014, Collins told supervisors he would attempt to service a new maintenance district with the county’s existing physical shops, but the crew would require new equipment, including a motor grader, backhoe and dump truck.
Many equipment purchases, however, may not be needed, he said after analyzing how to platoon the county’s existing machinery.
A new crew is also expected to require four hires, which means additional costs for salary and benefits.
“I’ve been trying to figure how to come up with equipment without having to buy as much right now. I actually have a motor grader that could service the new area; I’m going to need a backhoe, but I can get a used one that’ll work; I’ll also need a tractor for bush hogging and maybe another bush hog itself,” he said. “(If a new maintenance district is added) … I know I can put that crew to work without going out and spending $200,000-$300,000 on equipment alone. It would be helpful if we knew now so I can have the crews already out so they’re trained up and ready to go when it’s added.”
The motion to begin the bidding process for a new dump truck was approved unanimously.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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