County Commissioners discuss responsibility for road maintenance
<p>County Planner Tim Read and County Commissioner Laurie Johnston look over a map marking the boundary of the River Hideaway plat during the commissioner's meeting.</p>
SUPERIOR – In their weekly meeting, the Mineral County Commissioners discussed who had responsibility to plow certain roads around the county.
Tim Read, Mineral County planner, was on hand to discuss the issue with the commissioners and provide information from his office. This information included county road lines and details of some of the county’s responsibilities.
The commissioners mentioned a situation where a resident owned a piece of property where the only road on or off was not recognized by the county. This led to the question of who was responsible for maintaining it.
Roman Zylawy, commissioner for the county’s east end, said the case originated years ago. He said there was a piece of property where a railroad crossing was once the only way onto the land as a county road. When the railroad moved the crossing in 1970, the road was blocked off and the landowners built a new driveway to get to the property. The problem was the new driveway was not on county land or private property.
“When the original crossing was there, it was a legal crossing with a legal county road and these people could use it,” Zylawy said. “When the railroad moved the crossing, the county did not build the road and did not have any acceptance of it. The people just got a driveway they use but at the courthouse, on paper, there was no legal access or county road.”
As a result the question of who would be responsible for the road’s maintenance was left open. Zylawy said the landowners wanted the driveway declared a county road where the county would maintain it. At the time, in 1970, the county denied the request.
In 2009, the landowners negotiated with the commissioners of the time to have the driveway declared a county road so they could get a loan. Because they officially lived on inaccessible land, the bank refused them the loan.
The commissioners agreed to help the landowners by declaring the driveway a county road but not officially treating it as one. The agreement carried the understanding it would be a county road in name only and the county would not be responsible for plowing it. Now, years later, the landowner was wondering why the county was not plowing the road.
“You agreed to make it a county road but not to plow it, the county only needs to plow [the area to a certain point],” Zylawy said. “They [agreed] but now they’re saying ‘hey, it’s a county road, you guys need to come in and plow.’”
While the commissioners were prepared to remind them of the agreement, the landowners never came to the meeting and the issue could not be resolved.
During other business in the meeting, Read presented the final plat of the River Hideaway for approval by the commissioners. The River Hideaway plat is part of a subdivision north of St. Regis, which was split into plots where two homes could be built in the future.
While no weed management plan was on file for the meeting, it was noted one would be filed after the final plat signing. Read explained everything was there for the plan but the meeting was not scheduled until the first week of March.
“That’s not enough of an issue to hold up the commissioners to sign the plat,” Read said. “Some people were very anxious to get that done. [The weed plan] can get added to the file after that committee meets on the first Wednesday of March.”
The commissioners unanimously agreed to accept and approve the final River Hideaway plat. They signed the documents to then be sent to the Clerk and Recorder’s office to be approved and filed.