By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
Members of the Ellis County Commission toured approximately 50 of the nearly 1,500 miles of Ellis County roads Monday as part of their annual road tour.
Along the way, commissioners and members of the Public Works Department took a look at bridges in need of repair, areas that have been flooded or washed out due to recent rains, and the condition of the asphalt on Feedlot Road — one of the key routes of the Northwest Business Corridor.
Ellis County Public Works Director Bill Ring said Monday the annual road tour is something that has been going on for several years and is an opportunity for the commissioners to see first-hand some of the infrastructure issues Public Works crews see on a daily basis. It is also a public meeting, which allows all three commissioners to take part in the tour together.
“We can openly discuss and have interaction with the three commissioners at the same time,” Ring said. “We can point out repairs, (and) we can point out potential issues.”
Commissioner Dean Haselhorst said this was his ninth road tour, but it was the first for new commissioners Butch Schlyer and Dustin Roths.
“Commissioner Schlyer is a former county department head but he wasn’t out in the county that much because of his position running the Health Department and Commissioner Roths is brand new also,” Ring said. “He hasn’t had a lot of time in the county on the roads we went today.”
Among the areas the commission toured Monday was Feedlot Road from U.S. Highway 183 west to 210th Avenue.
The Northwest Business Corridor has been designated as the route between Feedlot Road from 230th Avenue to U.S. 183 and 230th Avenue between Interstate 70 and Feedlot Road.
In February, the commission approved $800,000 toward improvements in that area in hopes that other entities would also provide funds through grants and state funding. The county estimates it will cost more than $15.7 million to complete all three phases of the project.
In April, following a tour of the area the Kansas Department of Transportation pledged $1 million in matching funds for the project, contingent upon a grant from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation.
The commissioners confirmed Monday the Dane G. Hansen Foundation denied the county’s $2.2 million grant request, forcing a search for other funding sources.
Haselhorst said he believes the county should approach the city of Hays about helping fund improvements.
Feedlot Road is paved in the area of the business corridor, but the pavement is beginning to show serious signs of disrepair. Public Works staff said it will only get worse when construction of roundabouts on Vine Street begins in the near future. Traffic is expected to increase in the area with motorists attempting to detour around construction to reach Interstate 70 and the west side of Hays.
Haselhorst also said the county needs to contact U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran about the project after he helped the city of Hays get funding for the roundabouts project on Vine.
The area is home to Hess Services, an oilfield supply company that employs more than 200, Midwest Energy’s Goodman Energy Center and several other businesses.
Haselhorst said Monday that Hess Services is expanding and, after talking with the new owners of the feedlot, located between 210th and 200th avenues, he expects the feedlot to expand its operations in the coming months.
That will also result in an increase in truck traffic on Feedlot Road.
Curt Hoffman, the county’s road and bridge supervisor, presented the commission with two repair options to consider for Feedlot Road.
The first would be to mill the surface back to a dirt road and maintain it as needed for approximately $21,000. But he added he wasn’t sure how the residents in the area would like that because they would lose their paved road.
The other option presented to the commission was a prime and seal that would cost between $65,000 and $104,000.
Hoffman said a similar reclamation project was done in 2009 for $371,000. In the last two years, Hoffman said the county has spent more than $19,500 a year to patch the roadway.
During the tour, the commission also traveled to Victoria to look at Cathedral Avenue. The county is responsible for both Cathedral Avenue. and Washington Street in Ellis because they are main thoroughfares in the communities of less than 5,000 people.
Cathedral is experience significant “crowning,” where the middle of the street is higher than the edges. The city of Victoria received a grant from the USDA to replace waterlines, and the lines run under and around Cathedral. Ellis County officials expect that when the lines are replaced, the county will have to do some work on Cathedral.
Two other stops along the tour included a stone arch bridge that is in need of repair and one that has been repaired. The bridges are built out of limestone and, when water gets into the areas of the bridge it will deteriorate. Crews use galvanized steel in the arches to repair the damage on the underside of the bridge, and a cap is put on the sides of the top where needed.
The commission also observed areas where residents have planted crops or placed items in the county’s rights of way. Public Works Director Bill Ring said if they are going to enforce the regulation that nothing is allowed in rights of way, then it must be done countywide. That includes trees, mailboxes and fences.
Both Schlyer and Roths also planned on touring other part of the county they were unable to get to Monday.
