HERMANN — With apologies to the poet Robert Frost, good fences don’t necessarily make good neighbors — especially if those fences are placed on county right-of-way and hamper the maintenance of roads.

That’s an issue that regularly confronts Gasconade County administrators. The most recent example is on Price Road, where a property owner’s fence is too close to the roadway. Throughout the county, Road Department crews are working on roads that might only be a dozen feet wide when the county’s standard width is more than double that. Fences placed within the right-of-way can hamper maintenance efforts such as brush cutting and snow removal.

At last week’s County Commission session, Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel, R-Hermann, said questions regarding a property owner’s encroachment onto county right-of-way has been sent to the county’s consulting attorney. If talks with property owners don’t resolve the issue, county officials might take legal action to move fences off the right-of-way.

On another front involving county roads, logging activity in the Pershing area during the recent bout of wet weather has damaged county roads, administrators said. In recent weeks, county officials have been grappling with road damage in the Owensville area. Utility work for Ameren Missouri on Old Woollam Road prompted concerns on the part of county officials. That matter apparently has been resolved with the county making an inspection of the road after the work is completed, If more needs to be done to repair the road, the county will do the work and bill the subcontractor doing the utility work.

In a final note about county roads, the County Commission still has not filled the top spot in the Road Department. Longtime Supervisor Wayne Kottwitz is retiring and his successor has yet to be selected. 

“We’re still in flux about the road supervisor position,” said Miskel, adding that the administrative panel will be naming a new department chief soon. “We’ll make a decision shortly,” he said.

County government administrators are keeping an eye on the Missouri General Assembly regarding a possible source of funds for county road agencies — the newly increased state fuel tax. Because of the sharp rise in gasoline and diesel prices, state lawmakers are mulling a pause in the increase in fuel tax.

The state fuel tax is scheduled to increase 2.5 cents a year for five years to bring up what has been one of the lowest state fuel taxes in the country. Local governments receive a portion of the state fuel tax and any pause in the new tax could affect the amount of money that would come to local governments.

County Clerk Lesa Lietzow said the amount estimated to come to Gasconade County from the increase was not included in this year’s operating budget, so if there is a delay in assessing the tax it won’t have an immediate impact on the county’s operating funds.

“We didn’t allow for any in this year’s budget,” she said.

But a possible pause in the tax is causing concerns within the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT). Earlier this month, Meramec Region Area Engineer Preston Kramer told the County Commission that the revenue projected from the fuel tax increase would allow the state transit agency to do several things that so far it has been unable to do because of limited funds. A delay in the tax would affect MoDOT significantly, county officials said.

“It’s going to really hamper the state,” said County Treasurer Mike Feagan.

In other matters during the session, the Commission agreed not to endorse a plan by Coroner Jeff Arnold to use American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to outfit the coroner’s vehicle with a powerlift device. That piece of machinery is designed to allow a single person to place a body into the vehicle. Miskel said the projected cost of the lift, about $32,000, is almost as much as the cost of the coroner’s vehicle itself. Another $30,000-plus was spent to equip the vehicle with items necessary for Arnold to perform his duties as coroner. That money came from the county’s share of CARES Act money.

Miskel noted that there usually are several people on the scene who can help when a body needs to be placed in the vehicle. However, Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville, said Arnold can seek ARPA funds on his own from Meramec Regional Planning Commission, the agency acting as the administrator of the county’s ARPA funds. “He can put in the application if he wants,” Lairmore said.