Residents appear to win "dust up" with supervisors

LEE COUNTY – Residents in rural Lee County appear to have won a “dust up" with county officials over increased dust control fees.
The Lee County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution increasing fees for prep work on gravel roads that are being privately treated for dust control measures.
But residents pushed back against the fee at last Monday’s regular board meeting, and again at Monday’s meeting, going so far as to say the county isn’t doing what they say they are doing when it comes to prep work.
Tony Menke, a resident who compiled some studies on the effects of grading roads and the impact to road surfaces, read a statement to the county again Monday.
“As I wrote in a letter to the board already, I can, with 100% certainty, say that has never happened to the application area in front of my house.  I have been doing the application in this location for 10 years and this service and material that is costing and causing this additional tax has never taken place,” Menke said.
“So to be clear, the $250 cost per 500 feet that had been stated in the last meeting is irrelevant because the service and materials have never happened.”
Supervisors Tom Schulz and chairman Garry Seyb took exception to the comments. Seyb said there is additional rock being put down according to County Engineer Ben Hull.
“What I’m saying is those sections of roads require more gravel and we put more gravel on those sections of roads,” Seyb said.
“But you don’t.” Menke said.
Menke said per Hull’s numbers, presented at the last meeting, the county could save, in theory, $100,000 per year.
Supervisors Ron Fedler and Matt Pflug said they would like to see the county reconsider the new fee structure.
“You guys are paying for this out of your own pocket, you (shouldn’t) have to pay more to the county,” Fedler said. “I really have all kinds of people telling me and, from last Monday to Friday, I was just getting swamped with calls telling me we had misinformation.”
Fedler said those people indicated the county hadn’t been out there before, during or after the dust control application.
Several residents in attendance, including Carl Stuekerjuergen, asked the county to not maintain the roads as often as they are and to let the dust control measures go to work.
“The dust control issue has been much worse the last couple years,” he said. “Last year they graded our road at least 15 times. I don’t know if there is any oversight on these graders – where they’re going and who’s telling them to grade it over and over and over.”
Keith Menke of rural West Point said that could be a money-savings mechanism for the county.
“If you can save this much money, wouldn’t that be something that you would jump on?” Menke asked. “We did a lot of the work for you. You could bring it up that, 'Hey, here’s where we can save money', instead of asking us to pay more money. That’s a hell of a lot more than $20,000.”
The $20,000 is the amount Hull said the new fees would generate per year on average based on current application trends.
Jim Betherum, a former 15-year employee of the county, said he agreed that nothing is being done by the county prior to the dust control measures.
“I haven’t seen it either. The blading before, yeah, but there was a section on Otte Road near West Point that wasn’t bladed and it was sprayed. Prep wasn’t done, no rock and blading wasn’t completed, so that didn’t help anything,” Bethurem said.
“There are curves you can’t see around and, with the dust clouds, there have been numerous times people come out on the wrong side because they can’t see either.”
Bethurem said residents are paying to put the treatment down and almost every section is in front of a residence.
“They maintain the ditch to the shoulder, mowing and treating, and we’re helping the county out. It’s a give and take thing.”
Al Nelson said people in south Lee County are also unhappy with the conditions of the road.
Supervisor Chuck Holmes thanked the group for taking the time to provide information to the county to help make a better decision.
During a workshop that followed the regular meeting, Supervisor Matt Pflug said with all the new information and discontent of the residents, he would be in favor or resetting the fees to the previous structure.
Residents were paying $50 as part of the dust control application that went to the county for each application.
At the end of the workshop, Seyb asked deputy auditor Sherri Yasenchok to add to the agenda for next Monday action to reset the fees to the previous structure in place prior to the change.