Citizens make one more appeal to keep Club Hall Rd. paved

At their regular meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 20, Foster County commissioners heard once again from residents unhappy about the decision to turn Club Hall Road back to gravel.

This time, residents of eastern Foster County expressed their opposition in the form of two letters requesting the commission reverse their decision. Both letters were signed by dozens of individuals in opposition to turning the road to gravel.

Both letters make the exact same request, but one was signed by 56 Foster County residents, while the other was signed by 38 property owners who are not residents.

"This petition is to reverse the decision of the Foster County Commissioners to revert Foster County 4th Street to gravel," reads both letters. "The reversion to gravel will negatively impact the area and residents of the county as well as surrounding communities.

"This road is highly traveled and a main roadway in Southeast Foster County. It is a school bus route as well."

Club Hall Road cuts through Eastman and McKinnon Townships for eight miles between Kensal Road (85th Ave Northeast) and Highway 20. And at a commission meeting on July 16, commissioners officially accepted a bid from Border States Paving to turn the paved road to gravel.

The commission had previously held a special meeting on July 10 about the project, at which several eastern Foster County residents were in attendance to express their concerns.

Like they did on July 10, Foster County Commissioners explained their reasoning on Aug. 20, when multiple concerned residents were once again before the commission.

Commission Chairman David Utke told residents that Foster County simply doesn't have the tax base to continue maintaining 91 miles of paved roads. He added that of all their paved roads, Club Hall is in the worst shape and requires the most time and money to maintain.

"It's anywhere from two to four times the cost to build and maintain a paved highway than a gravel road," said Utke. "The county is hit by inflation just like everybody, so one mill doesn't go as far as it used to."

Utke also prepared information showing just how many paved miles of highway Foster County has relative to its size and population. Foster County, he explained, has just over five miles of paved highway miles per township.

That's significantly more than several neighboring counties, such as Eddy and Wells, and it's more than double the roughly two paved miles per township Griggs County has.

It's also slightly more than both Stutsman and Barnes counties, which have 4.5 and 4.3 paved miles per township, respectively.

Those two counties, of course, also have much higher populations and therefore a larger tax base to support and maintain those miles.

"For us to change our mind, we'd have to ignore the finances and ignore the engineering analysis," said Utke. "And it's not a position we want to be in. It'd be more fun to say yes ... but we don't have the finances to do it."

Each commissioner who spoke on the matter reaffirmed their support for the project, and ultimately no motion was made to renege on the contract they signed with Border States Paving to turn the Club Hall Road back to gravel.

In other business at Tuesday's commission meeting, Foster County Emergency Manager Andrew Kirking provided another update regarding the train derailment near Bordulac.

"Cleanup continues in Bordulac as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigates the crash," reported Kirking, who was interviewed by the NTSB on Aug. 12, when he shared his perspective on the incident.

"This was a first for me, and I understand this to be an extremely in-depth process that will take months or years to complete."

Kirking added that he and Foster County Auditor Ellen Roundy have been in contact with Canadian Pacific Kansas City, and that the county could begin seeing reimbursement as early as next week.

The Foster County Commission's next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, September 3 at 3:30 p.m.