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Commissioners hear more complaints about roads
A group of northern Putnam County residents would rather the county leave their deteriorating blacktop road alone than, in their words, "turn it into a gravel road."
County Road 450 East goes south off State Road 236 about a mile west of Roachdale. After a series of curves, it continues south as County Road 500 East. Much of the stretch between 236 on the north and County Road 1100 North on the south is cracked or crumbling.
Residents complained to the Putnam County Commissioners Monday about gravel being used to fill the holes rather than patching it with blacktop.
"We're being forced now to live on a gravel road," one resident said.
Like so many of the county's road problems, the commissioners explained there is currently a lack of funding from the state.
"We're getting less money right now for the county highway than we got 20 years ago," commissioner Gene Beck said.
When the complaints continued, Beck had a solution.
"Maybe they ought to just stop putting rock on it," he said.
"Please," came a chorus from the residents.
A number of the citizens cited problems they saw with the road's condition, such as dust causing problems with houses and with people's health, upkeep to vehicles and declining property values.
County highway co-supervisor Clint Maddox explained that decisions on what roads get patched are based on traffic counts, but that some of the counts are out of date.
With the neighbors telling of increased traffic on the road over the last decade, the commissioners advised the highway department to place counters on the road so the traffic situation can be reassessed.
In other business:
* The commissioners chose 12 Point Telecommunications to service the county's phone systems. They had also received proposals from Gibson Teldata and Logical Choice.
* Mike Smith of Cardinal Office Products offered to do a study on how the county can reduce operational costs on printers and scanners.
"Probably the easiest way to reduce your operational costs right now is to get rid of all the printers in the courthouse," Smith said.
Smith is not the first vendor to recommend replacing traditional desktop printers with multifunctional devices. Representatives from Copyco and Cannon have given similar advice in similar months.
The commissioners advised Smith they are in the process of forming a technology committee and that he should plan to speak to that body when it is formed.
* The commissioners also approved the refilling of existing positions in the assessor's office, county highway department and 911 dispatch. On Tuesday, the county council also approved refilling the positions.