Court Hears CR 290 Concerns
A group of approximately ten Glasscock County citizens brought their
desires to have caliche on all of County Road 290 to the county commissioners’
court at its regular meeting Aug. 9 (Jimmy Strube absent).
Acting as
the group’s spokesman, Eugene Jost said the road, which runs east from State
Highway 33 in Precinct 2, has been in existence since 2000, and only one mile of
it has been caliched. The group wants the county to caliche the remaining 1.5
miles. Jost said several people have farms down it, and now oil companies are
heavy users. He said when it rains, farmers can’t get to their property, and oil
companies can’t get trucks to their locations without using a caterpillar to
pull them through the mud on the road.
Precinct 2
Commissioner Mark Halfmann estimated that it would cost $40,000 for the county
to do the work. He added that the county is shorthanded on road workmen and CR
290 hasn’t been a priority, since no one has lived along the road, and no school
busses use it. He said oil company activity, which has worsened the problem, is
recent. Also, he said there is no good source of caliche nearby, and it will
take several weeks of hauling with current county workers to get enough material
in.
Jost said CR 195 in Precinct 1 has only one farm and no busses use it, but it
has been not only caliched, but paved for years. He said ten years is long
enough to get a road caliched.
There was mention of hiring Price Construction to do the work if the county
can’t do it, or of the two oil companies that use the road possibly helping with
the work. Jost said it shouldn’t be up to the oil companies. He said, “We pay
county taxes and the county should take care of county roads.”
To recap the discussion, County Judge Kim Halfmann said Commissioner Halfmann
will talk to the oil companies and to Price Construction to get something done,
or the county will do it.
[Editor’s
Note:
Interested readers can check the Glasscock
County News archives of October 2000 and October 2004 for prior coverage of
CR 290. Go to
www.glasscockcountynews.com]