Posted on Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 10:29 am

E.S.R.D. Commissioner Joel Conderman

For some time now The Elsberry Democrat has been reporting on the efforts of Jim Hale, Larry Lehmkuhl and other residents of Ehmler Acres with regard to getting at least a portion of Ehmler Lane, the roadway running through the center of their neighborhood, either asphalted or chip and sealed.

Those efforts gained momentum at the February 2015 meeting of the Elsberry Special Road District [E.S.R.D.] when Hale and Lehmkuhl requested that the E.S.R.D. commissioners grandfather Ehmler Lane into the budget for 2015’s road work, due to the fact that they have been asking for a new road surface since several years prior to the board’s adoption of Lincoln County’s policy with regard to road work and maintenance.

That policy dictates that roads are maintained as per their current surfaces only, unless residents living on those roads pay 50 percent of the expenses related to upgrading to either asphalt or chip and seal.

The board left Hale and Lehmkuhl with the impression that their request would be considered.

However, the district’s attorney, Wendy J. Corley, advised the commissioners that they had a second option open to them.

She stated that if the board was in agreement they could vote to step away from their adherence to Lincoln County’s policy and simply choose to pave Ehmler Lane irregardless.

The board took no action at their February meeting, but E.S.R.D. Commissioner Joel Conderman said the possibility of paving Ehmler Lane has created a huge amount of controversy and has other residents beating down his door in an attempt to get their roads paved as well.

“I want to calm those waters and let the residents of the district know that their voices and their concerns are being heard,” said Conderman.

Conderman said he has been doing some research and has not yet been able to pinpoint the exact moment at which the E.S.R.D. adopted Lincoln County’s policy, nor has he found a paper trail to document the claim that Ehmler Acres residents have been requesting a paved road since prior to that point.

“In fact, I’ve had four or five residents come to me since the previous article was published in the newspaper and they brought four different roads to my attention,” said Conderman. “They all claim to have made requests for a paved road before we adopted the county’s policy. I’ve been able to loosely substantiate three of those claims based on information provided to me verbally but there isn’t any paperwork to back up any of them.”

That, according to Conderman, isn’t even the real problem.

“They said they requested it and I choose to believe them,” said Conderman. “The problem is that we now have multiple roads with residents who are asking us to grandfather them in. After this article appears there may even be more.”

Conderman said that instead of just refusing those requests he wanted to do a little homework and share some numbers with district residents so they can see why the E.S.R.D. has adopted the county’s policy and needs to adhere to it.

“It really comes down to cost,” said Conderman. “The first time the district paved any roads was in 2000. Back in those days we were paying $22.50 per ton for asphalt. In 2014 asphalt was $44.50 per ton. That means the cost of asphalted and chip and sealed roads has doubled over the years so it now costs much more for us to pave roads than it did in the past.”

There’s more bad news, however.

“In my research I found that the E.S.R.D. currently has approximately 30 miles of road that is either asphalted or chip and sealed,” said Conderman. “Many of the roads that were once just asphalted have since been chip and sealed to help keep the weather out of the cracks because we can’t afford to add more layers of asphalt to roads that already have an asphalt surface.”

According to Conderman, that puts the E.S.R.D. in a precarious position.

“If you take that 30 mile figure and you look at 2014 costs you’re looking at approximately $20,000 per mile,” said Conderman. “I took the 30 miles that we currently have and estimated that they would all go five years without needing repair and maintenance. That would mean that we would have to do six miles of road every year just to simply maintain the asphalt and chip and seal roads that we already have.”
Conderman said that at $20,000 per mile the district would have to spend $120,000 per year every year just to keep up the status quo, and that’s at last year’s prices.

The 2015 budget for asphalt is only $100,275.

“At these current numbers and if nothing changes drastically in our budget for the better, I can foresee a time in the future when we will be faced with the possibility of letting certain roads go back to gravel,” said Conderman.

Put simply, since on paper the E.S.R.D. is going to have enough trouble maintaining the paved roads it already has, Conderman said he doesn’t see any way that new paved roads can be added to the list, whether it’s Ehmler Lane or any other surface in question.

“It’s just the situation that we’re in,” said Conderman. “Fairness doesn’t really have anything to do with it.”

Although Conderman said he tries to always see the positive, he admitted that he had even more bad news.

Due to increases every year in the district’s operating costs, Conderman said he sees no way the E.S.R.D. can afford to pave new roads even if residents are able to come up with 50 percent of the related expenses.

“We’re really going to have a problem if people start coughing up that money,” said Conderman. “People don’t realize that even if the district doesn’t have to pay 100 percent of the initial paving cost we’re responsible for all of the maintenance and upkeep forever after.”

Given the fact that the E.S.R.D. spent $14,000 on salt alone in 2014, Conderman said paving more roads is just not a financially viable option.

“On paper I don’t see how it can be done,” said Conderman. “These aren’t my opinions. They’re just the numbers. They’re the facts. Basically, we simply don’t have the resources to pave any additional roads.”

Conderman also responded to claims that the E.S.R.D. has not investigated alternative sources of funding.

“We have looked at additional resources in the past with regard to generating increased revenue,” said Conderman. “Since 1993 the district has obtained over $390,000 from FEMA and other sources.”

Conderman said the district currently has two CDs valued at $100,000 each and he knows a lot of residents would like to see those cashed in so that their roads can be paved, much like the E.S.R.D. did last year in order to pay for the work done on Old Hwy. 79 and Hatfield Road.

“We’re a responsible road district,” said Conderman. “We have five major pieces of equipment and $200,000 wouldn’t replace even two of those pieces of equipment or cover the cost of a bridge that went down and needed to be replaced. It’s important for us to have reserves.”

Conderman pointed out that the E.S.R.D. budget in 2000 was approximately $430,000.

By the year 2007-2008 that budget had increased to approximately $694,000, which allowed the district to perform a lot of extra work that had previously not been possible.

Due to a consistently stubborn economy, however, the overall budget for 2015 is only $588,000 and some change.

“We’ll find a way to make it work,” said Conderman. “I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished so far and we’re going to continue to do the best we can with what we have.”

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