County commissioners approve Canal Road improvements

RONAN — While county commissioner Gale Decker was out on vacation, Lake County commissioners Bill Barron and Ann Brower approved a rural improvement district to improve part of Canal Road.

The meat of the project is chip sealing Canal Road outside of Ronan. The citizen-initiated project needed to have the support of 60 percent of the property owners. At a previous meeting regarding the road, commissioners heard a mixture of support and opposition to the work.

Some residents have voiced concerns about dust, washboards and potholes that go hand-in-hand with dirt roads but others are reluctant to get on board with the improvements due to the hefty price tag they bear.

Parcel owners will have to split the bill, which could max out at $79,200 and includes a 5 percent administration fee and a possible revolving fee if the commissioners decide to take out a bond. Commissioner Brower said this cost is just the cost of the oil to chip seal the two-mile stretch of road. She said the county will cover the cost of the work and construction, yet the bill per parcel could potentially reach $2,141.

Barron said Decker, who had originally carried the bill, had advised the other two commissioners that it might be a good idea not to approve the RID after hearing concern about the cost to landowners.

“It seemed as if the motivation behind that was the hardship financially that it would create for some. That’s difficult to force that down people’s throats when they sincerely cannot afford to pay for it,” commissioner Brower said.

If 50 percent of the parcel owners had voiced opposition to the RID, it would have been shot down automatically. Since the commissioners didn’t receive that amount of negative feedback regarding the project, it was in their discretion whether or not to approve or deny going forward with the Canal Road improvements. Typically, the commissioners will turn down chip seal projects if the portion of road in question doesn’t abut another section of paved road.

“I don’t think there’s any question about the merits of the Canal Road being chip sealed. It’s really horrendous up there, particularly in the winter and spring runoff, and even in the summer. But with the potholes, the washboard,” Bob Peregoy said, summing up the concerns of all who had come to show support for the RID.

“When there’s runoff there’s even little, I guess you’d call it creeks, running across the road grading it out that are very, very bumpy. It makes traveling unsafe. It creates a lot of dust. It’s hazardous to some people’s health and certainly those conditions make it very difficult to maintain vehicles in their proper order as they should be.”

Peregoy, along with Mauri Morin and Ted Coursen said the road is well-traveled and it is a main thoroughfare for the entire area. It was also voiced that those facing financial difficulty will potentially save money by seeing a reduction in car repair and healthcare costs once the potholes and dust are dealt with.

“The reason I put so much effort behind this is my wife is facing a significant health problem because of this. She has extended Parkinson’s disease and it’s caused a hardening of the lungs and so the dust is really affecting her severely. So I’m stuck with situation where I have to do something. That is my hardship plea, I guess,” Joe Hughes said, addressing the feeling of many who also stated that the dust currently being created is detrimental to the health of residents along Canal Road.

When the time for a vote came, it was plain to see which way the commissioners would throw their weight. Both Brower and Barron voted in favor of the Canal Road Improvement District.

Barron said that the commissioners like to see the roads chip sealed, especially when a RID can be created because it lifts part of the financial burden of the project off of the county. He told the audience that they get a safer road and the county can mitigate the dust problem, an issue that the Environmental Protection Agency has focused on recently.

Though the final plans have yet to be set in stone, the work on the road is slated to begin this summer.

“Chip seal does not happen overnight. Understand that even though this was approved, it won’t happen overnight,” Brower said.

Commissioners Barron and Brower warned residents that the work will have to come after road emergencies that have a higher priority. The commissioners recently declared a state of emergency to deal with the “massive casualties to our road system,” Barron said. He and the other commissioners are hoping that a presidential declaration will come through so funding will become available to mend the pocked streets throughout the county.