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Stuck in a Rut

Monday, February 21, 2011
Melted snow and ice has caused quite the muddy mess across Putnam County. This South Putnam school bus got stuck in the mud southwest of Reelsville at the intersection of CR 775W and 1050S Friday morning. Transportation director Chuck Shaffer said the road looked perfectly fine, and the driver stayed in the travel portion. However, the bus sank into the soft mud. Another corporation driver picked up the students, and a wrecker came to pull out the bus. "We got everybody there safe and sound. We got our bus out, and it's getting a good wash job," Shaffer said. "Our drivers did an excellent job on the snow- and ice-covered roads of not getting stuck. It's just ironic that we got stuck in the mud on such a beautiful day." (Photo contributed)

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  • The county roads are a mess. Gravel roads with no gravel are mud. All the gravel roads in the area has the potential of swallowing buses and cars everyday. I called the garage before the snow started, and nothing was done to help the road. They had to know we would be in a situation like this. Vote wisely in the next election!

    -- Posted by prayforall on Tue, Feb 22, 2011, at 5:45 AM

  • It's called Mother Nature,nothing to do with elections,these kind of road conditions happen every year...get over it!

    -- Posted by kubotafan on Tue, Feb 22, 2011, at 6:26 AM

  • County roads are a mess because we do not fix our roads anymore...it is like we have went back in time and we have dirt roads now. Our road use to be a nice black top road when we first purchased our home and now it is nothing but holes and dirt/gravel which the county graded it down to that. We pay alot tax money and we can not even get our roads fixed BUT we can afford to keep paying these Politians's money to lie. FIX our roads!

    -- Posted by cato on Tue, Feb 22, 2011, at 7:55 AM

  • Many people have a right to be upset. We too live on a gravel road. Instead of spending money on one good paving job we have seen the county re-gravel and grade the road as much as 7 times a year, year after year. Where is the savings there?

    -- Posted by DJ on Tue, Feb 22, 2011, at 9:43 AM

  • I agreee. We need to vote wisely. Bus drivers endure many horrible conditions and yet they can't get any help either. I know my road is a mess. Their isn't any pavement left. Last year they said they weren't going to fix them, and if they did they were going to turn the road(s) back in to gravel. I bet the commissioners' roads are in good shape though.

    -- Posted by yachtsman on Tue, Feb 22, 2011, at 9:45 AM

  • All comments so far have not addressed the root of the problem with our county roads. And the problem is the way in which the Indiana legislature calculates the funds which come back to the counties for transportation, roads etc.

    Rural counties, such as Putnam County, receive a lower % of funding than the larger metropolitan counties, such as Hendricks and Marion counties because pick-up trucks are NOT counted in the number of vehicles used to calculate the funds. Rural counties have a great number of pickup trucks on the roads yet they are NOT counted in the funding calculation.

    Everyone needs to call, write, e-mail their state Senator, Richard Bray or Connie Lawson or state Representative, Jim Baird about this matter.

    -- Posted by Lookout on Tue, Feb 22, 2011, at 11:30 AM

  • Thank you,Lookout! Maybe all these whiners will read your post and comprehend! The Highway funds derive from fuel tax and excise tax,nothing else!

    -- Posted by kubotafan on Tue, Feb 22, 2011, at 12:30 PM

  • yes, yachtsman the commissioners do have a good road in front of their house. Gene Beck got his road repaved this past summer. Jim Baird continues to live on a gravel road that is in poor condition.

    -- Posted by albert on Tue, Feb 22, 2011, at 1:15 PM

  • Go to the commissioners website and check it out. Mrs. Warren doesn't even have contact information, no phone #, no e-mail address. That tells me she doesn't want to hear from her constituents, she just wants a check. Please complain to your State Representatives.

    -- Posted by prayforall on Tue, Feb 22, 2011, at 2:04 PM

  • great bus driver,just really bad roads. Going to happen on other end of road as of today unless rocked soon. This is what happens when we choose to live in the non city part of Putnam County or any other county for that matter. Kudoos to the bus drive and the bus barn for reacting so quickly to get the kids to school safely further problem. Bus driver deserves a cup of tea for the incident.

    -- Posted by nooneseems to care on Tue, Feb 22, 2011, at 2:20 PM

  • Money in the pockets of all Putnam county politicians, that's what they care about, not our roads.

    -- Posted by charpo on Tue, Feb 22, 2011, at 4:05 PM

  • Albert, what they did to 500E was to "reclaim" it, it was not a full repave unfortunately. Its still rough as a cob but better than the broken up chunks of asphalt that was there after the previous winter. I know I spent several hundred dollars repairing my vehicles last summer from those large chunks damaging them. So find a legit beef with Beck, this isn't one of them.

    -- Posted by Pointman on Tue, Feb 22, 2011, at 4:12 PM

  • The county still has a job to do. They still need to make our roads safe. Mud is hard to do anything about except drying out. Pot holes are another story. They are dangerous and a shovel works wonders.

    -- Posted by bowling6 on Tue, Feb 22, 2011, at 5:31 PM

  • Hey,charpo,County Council controls the funds,not the Commissioners....

    -- Posted by kubotafan on Wed, Feb 23, 2011, at 6:22 AM

  • I can say this for sure. I lived on a road where a commissioner use to live. I didn't want to believe that just because we had a commissioner on the road the road was getting fixed.

    Well the commissioner does not live on my road anymore and hasn't for about a year or so. WOW!! BIG BIG difference on how the roads were maintained. Potholes got fixed in a timely fashion and during the winter they did a fair job of keeping the road passable. This year not a single pot hole has been fixed. As for keeping the roads passable well I am going to give the benefit of the doubt here and say we just had a really bad winter so far so that is why nobody has touched the roads.

    I am skeptical to say the least though. Just know that roads were definitely better and tended to when the commissioner lived on this particular stretch of road.

    Oh by the way half mile passed where the commissioner lived the road turned back to crap in years past whereas this year the entire road is crap. Hmmmmmmmm!!

    -- Posted by bottomline on Sat, Feb 26, 2011, at 11:35 AM
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