Commission at end of patience with plow request

A scuffle over road maintenance on a quarter-mile stretch of Old Sundance Rd may have reached its conclusion for now, it seems, after the county commissioners said they would not add it to the agenda again for at least another year.

The commission’s answer has not changed since Eric Akola first attended a meeting to request that this portion of road be plowed in the winter.

“We are going to maintain the county roads that we maintain now,” stated Commissioner Fred Devish, later adding, “I don’t know how we can make it any plainer that an unmaintained county road is an unmaintained county road.”

In other words, no changes will be made to the current roster of maintained versus unmaintained county roads.

The contentious discussion repeated many of the same talking points that Akola has brought before the commission in previous months.

Akola again asked why the county has no plan to address the changing demographics of the county or to make use of the extra tax dollars that new residents are bringing in.

He again asked why he is paying twice for the road to be maintained: once via his tax dollars and again to his housing association.

Both Devish and Commissioner Bob Latham commented, “There is no extra tax money.” Commissioner Kelly Dennis reiterated that three quarters of property tax revenue goes to Wyoming’s school system.

Devish asked Akola how long he has lived at his current address and, upon Akola’s response that he moved in ten years ago, asked if the road was not maintained when he did so.

When a buyer purchases property, Devish said, it is their own responsibility to find out information about it.

Latham asked if Akola believes roads are the only thing that taxes pay for. Akola indicated that he understands the money also goes towards fire fighting, police service and more.

Referring to Akola’s estimate that the 23 families making use of the portion of road bring in around $11,000 in property taxes, Latham commented that that amount of money doesn’t go very far. Road & Bridge Foreman Morgan Ellsbury noted that it is probably about enough to maintain Beaver Creek Rd up to the portion of road in question.

Akola was not the only citizen in the audience to address the commission. Rod Malo stated that he has lived in the area under discussion for 18 years and believes that plowing the road makes the problem worse.

Four residents own snowblowers and can keep up with the drifting, he said, but plowing the snow into piles only causes more problems when it blows back in.

Malo also commented that he thinks the county should consider that “some homework needs to be done” on potentially abandoning some of the unmaintained county roads if they provide no access to public lands. This, he said, may offset the problem of more requests of this nature being made as people move in and demand services.

Josh Undeberg echoed Malo’s position on the road. It’s not snowfall that’s the problem, he said, it’s the wind, and the county’s policy is based on four inches of snowfall, which means the plows would not come out because the wind was blowing.

Scott Pomerenke, on the other hand, supported Akola’s position, stating that he has a “legitimate gripe” about being “double taxed” for snow plowing when the county has no criteria in place for changing demographics.

As tempers frayed and the conversation was closed, Akola commented that he would see the commission again next month, having pledged to keep returning until the issue is resolved.

“No you won’t,” said Latham. This issue, said Devish, will not be revisited for at least a year.