HERMANN — The personnel and equipment of the Gasconade County Road Department have been put to the test in the past two weeks — including logging hours on the weekends — to repair damage to county roads by the string of heavy rains that began Aug. 1.

The damage was greater on the southern end of the county.

“They’re getting better,” said Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville, at Thursday morning’s session. “We’re not where we were before the storms,” he added.

Lairmore recognized the work being done by the grader operators and others in the Road Department to make the roads passable and safer for motorists, who were faced with washouts and hazardous crevices that were cut into the gravel roads by the flash flooding that came in waves over several days.

“They’ve been out all weekend,” he said of the road crews. “We had some (roads) that were impassable,” Lairmore said.

County administrators acknowledged the Road Department would need to be logging overtime for a second weekend.

“I think we’re going to have to” work on the weekend, said Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann.

Holland said roads in the northern half of the county fared better than those in the southern portion.

“We didn’t get hit as hard,” Holland said. “Not as bad as the south” end of the county, he added.

The Northern District commissioner suggested the county contact state and federal emergency management agencies to inquire about possible financial aid to offset the cost of getting the roads back in good shape.

“It’s worth a shot,” Lairmore agreed, noting that he was scheduled that afternoon to accompany Road Department Supervisor Roger Dahl to check on conditions of several county roads.

Rainfall amounts varied widely throughout Gasconade County. Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, noted that on his property in the Pershing area a rain gauge showed more than a foot of water fell during the storms.

“We had 15 inches of rain,” he said.

The heavy rains quickly swelled local creeks in the county and flooded local and state highways — high water on Highway 50 was a concern especially in the Gerald and Drake areas where drivers quickly found their vehicles in threatening levels of water, forced to move off the road when possible and wait for better conditions.

The repairs to county roads also includes the opening of culverts that became clogged with debris during the heavy rains. Keeping water flowing in the ditches means keeping it off the roads, Lairmore said.

“We’ve got to do something to keep those ditches open. That’s the main thing,” he said.

Meanwhile, the flash flooding forced county administrators to return to a site they thought they finally had resolved: Water problems around the new Valentine Ford Road bridge. After a protracted amount of time to finally close out that project, which included additional work after the span’s construction to remedy a standing water problem, the County Commission was hit with the news that the recent rains washed out areas near the bridge on both banks of the creek — meaning more work will be needed to shore up the site.

On another front at last week’s session, Schulte mentioned that County Government Day activities involving Gasconade County R-1 and R-2 school districts might be returning this school year. He has been in talks about the project with new leaders at the county office of the University of Missouri Extension Center.

The day-long program has not been held in recent years, sidetracked by the coronavirus pandemic. Activities normally include government students receiving an up-close look at the operations of local government offices in the courthouse and a first-hand experience of attending court action during a session of the District 4 Associate Circuit Court.

The County Commission, Treasurer Mike Feagan and other officials pitch in to grill hot dogs and burgers for lunch for the students. The county’s employee awards presentation ceremony also was conducted as part of County Government Day.