BY JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
After the approval of a quarter-cent sales tax, the Ellis County Commission is focusing on possible road improvements and, recently, commissioners took their annual road tour of Ellis County.
“I would like them to do some more planning because of the cost of roads,” Ring said. “So that they can see that we need to take a real in-depth look at how we’re going to manage the road system because it is expensive.”
Ring said that he wasn’t trying to get the commission to make specific decisions because, right now, there are a lot of outside factors that will weigh on the cost of the projects.
Commissioner Dustin Roths said he was “pleasantly surprised” with the conditions of the roads that they traveled.
“Considering the budget situation that we have had with road and bridge ... it was understandable that we would want to do something but it wasn’t like we were in dire need,” Roth said.
Commissioners said that with the approval of the sales tax they could look at using a portion of that money to put together a bond to pay for needed improvements.
“Let’s determine where we have serious issues and if we’re going to take care of those serious issues (with a bond)” Roths said. “This is a good starting point for us to plan things in an order."
Among the roads the commission toured was Cathedral Avenue in Victoria. The county is responsible for Cathedral because it is a main thoroughfare.
Ring said Cathedral has been a focus of the road and bridge department for several years because it needs work done. It also has water lines running underneath it that need to be replaced.
The city of Victoria has already received the grant and began laying out a timetable for those lines to be replaced, according to Ring. He said they believe that project could be completed by next spring and after that crews could begin fixing the road service.
“We don’t want to do anything until they dig up the road and patch it back,” Ring said. “We’ve been working with the city of Victoria and their commission and mayor to stay apprised of what is going on.”
Ring said the work on Cathedral will require crews to take the road all the way down to the road bed. He also anticipates some work on the base of the road and curb and guttering.
The commission also looked at bridges throughout the county. One of those was the Ellis Blacktop Bridge north of Ellis over the Saline River.
Ring said that bridge needs a new deck and previous estimates came in between $450,000 and $500,000
“It’s drivable. It's not that it’s unsafe,” Ring said, “but it needs a deck. It’s got potholes and it’s got cracking.”
Ring said he believes that is one of the No. 1 needs for Ellis County.
Roths agreed.
“It’s not a very wide bridge and its on a relatively high traveled road between Palco and Ellis," he said. "If we did something to it, I’d almost rather look at a potential replacement or upgrade to if for safe, better conditions on it.”
They also looked at 12th Street/Noose Road bridge west of Hays, the Yocemento bridge and a bridge on Old Highway 40 in Ellis — all of which need new bridge decks.
Ring said there are 200 bridges in Ellis County and they will continue to have to prioritize them.
“Prices are going to come down,” Ring said. “So the more insight I can provide the commissioners on the condition (and) possible projects, it will help.”
Roths said with the Northwest Business Corridor project, the improvements to Cathedral Avenue and some of the other road projects that could be coming up soon, the county is going to be spending significant money on road projects in the next few years.
“We want to at least allow the infrastructure we’ve built to last as long as we can but we’ve also got to start looking at actually being able to take care of things now, where as before we were just trying to hang out,” Roth said.
“If the economy gets back going and oil gets in good shape, we might have the ability as a county to really be some of the best road infrastructure for a county in western Kansas.”