An inquiry was made Tuesday morning into what plans Marshall County Commissioner Stan Klotz has for his “Better Roads Ahead” program.
Commissioner Michael Burroughs commented that the commissioners reviewed a proposed 2021 road program plan and said roads have improved over the last few years with overall higher ratings with county funds. However, Burroughs asked Klotz what the program is he wants to do after making it a priority in his campaign.
“What we need to do is to make a commitment to get more funding in these roads if we’re going to get ahead of the game,” stated Klotz. “You’re not going to fix ten years of neglect with one or two years with normal funding. So, basically as far as a road program, it’s not, per se, which roads need to be fixed. Jason [Peters, Highway Superintendent] will take care of that. We have to put more money in these roads. We have to come up with more money, we have to come up with more funding and do what we can do in-house. Basically, just turn the dogs loose and see how far they can go one year and what we can fund.”
Burroughs indicated that no additional funding was requested for 2021 for what Klotz wants to see happen in a road program. Klotz responded that the road program that Highway Superintendent Jason Peters put together is good, but he wants to see more. He suggested that the county could pay off the bond for the jail early to free up $1.1 to $1.4 million which caused Commission President Kevin Overmyer to ask how the county would pay for the jail.
Overmyer asked, “How are you going to fund the jail?”
Klotz replied, “You can’t get rid of the tax so somewhere we have to come back and generate them revenues.”
Overmyer continued, “You want to pay that off and let the tax go and then come back and tax the citizens?”
Klotz said, “No. I would prefer to keep the tax rate the same.”
“But you can’t,” said Overmyer.
“Re-establish it,” countered Klotz. “That’s what we need to look at and what we can do and come up with solutions.”
“But then you need to go back to the legislature and they’re working on a two-year budget right now,” said Overmyer.
Klotz added, “That’s what we should be doing. We should be looking at that and planning for the future.”
Overmyer said that county officials remain cautious about the jail population situation. COVID-19 may have slowed things down, but he noted it could change when things start to return to normal.
Klotz went on to say that they can look through the budget to find money. He commented that the county has $4.2 million in Rainy Day funds and other millions in the General Fund that could go to roads, but Auditor Julie Fox noted that a lot of those funds are budgeted for other projects and cautioned about spending especially since the impact of COVID-19 has not been felt yet in the budget.
Overmyer noted that roads in the road program need to be spread out among the entire county and not focus on a certain area. He asked Peters to review the 2021 road program to make sure all areas are taken into consideration.
The commissioners and the council may take up the subject in a future proposed collaboration meeting to come together on a number of topics. The collaboration was suggested by Council President Tim Harman last week during the Marshall County Council meeting.
