Road repair topic during commission, mayors meeting

An opportunity to talk road repair was on the table when the Dale County Commissioners met with mayors from Daleville, Level Plains, Newton, Pinckard and Ozark March 26.

At issue was which governmental entity is responsible for maintenance and repair of county roads located within city limits.

“At what point did the cities become responsible for county roads within the city limits?” asked Newton Mayor William Pruett.

“If a city assume maintenance over the roads, then it becomes theirs,” replied Dale County Commission Attorney Henry Steagall.

Steagall distributed copies of a 2003 Alabama Attorney General Opinion issued in response to the Houston County town of Avon’s question about the issue of maintenance responsibility.

“The Attorney General laid out what the law is on this,” Steagall said. “This addresses the situation where a town or city has taken over the maintenance of a (county) street or a road without a (formal written) resolution.

“Basically it says that although a city has not adopted a street for maintenance under the procedure set out in the Code of Alabama—adopting a formal resolution—it can assume responsibility for a street by exercising sole authority over the street.,” Steagall said. “You can pass a resolution to take over a county road and make it a city street but you don’t have to pass a resolution. You can do it by your actions.”

Dale County Engineer Derek Brewer cited part of County Road 14 in Newton as an example. “The town of Newton got a grant and put curbing on (County Road 14) 20 to 30 years ago to channel the water down toward the bottom of the hill down there,” Brewer said.

“When the town got that grant and put that curbing down there, it became theirs,” Brewer said. “That’s just an example of how a town or city can do something to takeover a street and becomes responsible for the maintenance of it.”

“If a town or city takes it over and starts working that street, whether there is a resolution or not, the town can take it over,” Steagall said.

“If a town goes out and fixes where a pothole started, is that going to say we’ve taken over the maintenance of that road?” asked Pickard Mayor Bobbie Borland Jr.

“If you fix one little pot hole, that is an extreme example,” Steagall replied. “I will agree that a county road going through a municipality, generally speaking, is a responsibility of the county unless the city has taken over the maintenance of it.”

When a city annexes county property, it automatically takes over the streets and county roads that are included in the annexation, Steagall added.

Brewer said that when he came to Dale County in 1996, the county operated under the district system in which each commissioner ran a road crew for their individual district. “But when we went to the unit system, we asked each foreman what roads they had been maintaining and created a countywide map of that.”

Borland said that his primary road concern is the part of County Road 55 which runs in front of South Dale Middle School. “I don’t think the town of Pinckard should be responsible for County Road 55 in front of the school,” he said. “You know the road gets beat up from school traffic from all over the southern part of the county.”

Dale County Commissioner Charles “Chic” Gary suggested that the county engineer and Borland coordinate to apply for a grant through the Southeast Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission for the repair of County Road 55 in the area of the middle school.

“You have drainage issues just below the school. The rest of the road is in fairly good shape,” Gary said.

“That road will beat a car to death,” Borland replied.

“That’s the only county road I have a concern with,” Borland told the commissioners. “We need to address this. If there is any money to go get, show me and we’ll go get it.”

County Road 114—also called Joe Bruer Road—is in dire need of re-striping, Level Plains Mayor Bruce Grantham told the commission. “At night you cannot tell what side of the road you are driving on,” Grantham said, adding that Averett Road near First Baptist Church Level Plains also needs a review.

“For the most part county roads are good shape in Level Plains,” he said.

Daleville Mayor Jayme Stayton said the only county road he had questions about had been answered when he learned that old Highway 134 was in fact a city owned road. Dale County Commissioner Steve McKinnon said the county had agreed to repave the road before turning ownership over to the city of Daleville. “They agreed that we would repave it they would take it,” McKinnon said.

Ozark Mayor Bob Bunting asked the commission if they would consider allocating some of the funds that they will receive from the recently enacted statewide gas tax earmarked for repair of the state’s roads and bridges.

“We want to help you any way we can but let me put it in perspective,” Dale County Commission Chairman Mark Blankenship said. “We are not winning the lottery with this gas tax.

“Next year it’s some $600,000, the next year we get another $200,000 and the next year, another $200,000,” Blankenship said. “To put that in perspective we just paved 77 miles of roads with chip seal at a cost of $1.5 million and we borrowed the $1.5 million just to save those roads.”