HERMANN — Gasconade County administrators will consider adding in next year’s operating budget a third gravel road to receive a chip-and-seal upgrade, a move that would be made possible by the tax dollars saved by not having to buy a road grader this year.

The County Commission usually appropriates about $200,000 each year to apply a chip-and-seal coating to portions of two county roadways. A chip-and-seal coating is considerably less expensive than a 4-inch asphalt overlay and serves as the next step in converting gravel roads to hard-surface roads.

At Thursday’s session in Hermann, Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, suggested the county add another road to its list for chip-and-seal this year, considering that a significant amount of money will be saved by not having to purchase a new road grader. In the past years, county government has obtained a grader almost every year. Now, county administrators have determined the Road Department can put more hours on a grader than in previous years before having to replace it.

Also, the County Commission recently approved the purchase of a Road Groom — a piece of equipment pulled by a pickup truck designed to make spot repairs of potholes and washboarding on gravel roads, making it unnecessary to send a grader to what could be a remote part of the county for a short period of work. That avoids putting more hours on a grader and it saves on fuel costs, officials say.

But Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville, said there is not a third county highway ready to be added to the list of roads in line for a chip-and-seal coating. Lairmore pointed to other expenditures expected this year in the Road Department and the need to obtain additional right-of-way agreements from property owners along a county road that would be a candidate for an upgrade.

“We’re not ready on either end,” Lairmore said, referring to the funds available for adding a third road and the need to obtain more right-of-way agreements that would clear the way for the work to be done.

Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann, suggested the administrators consider adding a third road later this year when work begins on the 2024 operating budget. County Clerk Lesa Lietzow and her staff will begin putting pencil to paper in assembling budget requests in November and December with the County Commission giving final consideration to a proposed budget in January. The Commission has until the end of January to put in place a new operating budget.

“Let’s look at it at budget time,” Holland said.

Regarding the county’s financial blueprint, Lietzow said she would provide a mid-year budget review after June payroll is made later this month. The review should be ready by the Commission’s first or second session in July “just to see where everything is,” Lietzow said.

The rain that fell in the county this past weekend was a welcome sight for county officials. It will make it easier for grader operators to maintain the roads, which had become hard-packed during a prolonged period of dry weather that has produced much road dust. But Lairmore said he thinks rural county residents have been understanding regarding the inability to do much road work during the dry period.

“Dry,” he said. “People, I think, understand. The Road Department has been doing a pretty good job keeping them in shape.”

Holland agreed that residents in his area recognized the challenge of maintaining the roads posed by the dry weather.

On another county transportation front, it appears the Valentine Ford Road bridge built several months ago is one of those projects that won’t quit. The final paperwork for closing out the project — which has been a thorn in the side of county officials since it built — has yet to be completed and sent to the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT). It was that agency that helped fund the work through the BRO (Bridge Rehabilitation Offsystem) Program, a funding program that helps local governments finance bridge work on local roads.

The Archer-Elgin engineering firm project engineer working on the close-out documents have been pulled off the project several times for emergency projects, county officials said, which has delayed getting the paperwork to MoDOT. Archer-Elgin is the county’s consulting civil engineering firm.

And, yet another update on the new doors for the courthouse — which were ordered two years ago: Lietzow said the doors that were ordered during the height of the COVID pandemic are scheduled to be installed this week. They were going to be installed last week, but woodworker Mike LeRoy “wasn’t ready,” Lietzow said Thursday morning, adding, “he will be next week.”

The doors were ordered in the spring of 2021, designed with a hands-free opening device aimed at preventing the spread of COVID. The $40,000 check, written with CARES Act money, was drafted by County Treasurer Mike Feagan in July of ‘21 and has been setting in his office safe since then as the project fell victim to one delay after another during the past couple years.

When installation begins on the doors, which will be placed on the south-side main entrance to the courthouse, those entering the courthouse will be shifted to the north-side door. Also being moved to the north-side single-door entrance will be the metal detector used by the Gasconade County Sheriff’s Department to screen people entering the building.

The work is expected to take a full working week to complete.

The Commission will not meet on Thursday, June 29, because of scheduled vacations by the administrators.