Wednesday, October 7, 1998

Counties need to re-examine road systems

The image of the rough-hewn county commissioner perched on a road grader to supervise road maintenance in his neck of the woods might still be one that comes to mind for many Big Country residents. But the role of county commissioner is changing as the job becomes more complex than just maintaining roads. And as that role changes, county governments need to re-examine "the way we've always done it" when it comes to road maintenance.

The method that's been used for years is for a county such as Taylor to be divided into four precincts, each with a commissioner who is responsible for road maintenance in his own little fiefdom and who works with his own budget, his own equipment, his own crews, his own purchasing orders, etc. Often, the result is a countywide duplication of materials and effort, an inefficiency of organization that ends up on the back of the county taxpayer.

In our part of Texas, we've relied heavily on the oil and gas industry to pay a big chunk of county taxes. With that industry's decline, more and more of the tax burden is falling on landowners and taxpayers who are being asked to make up for increases in the cost of county government. Taylor County commissioners recently voted such a property tax increase, which was met with less than jubilation by county residents.

Given such trends, county officials owe it to their constituents to seek the most cost-effective way to provide essential services.

Centralized supervision

For some 51 counties in Texas, that has meant ditching "the way we've always done it" with precinct-controlled road maintenance and going to a system that unifies the whole county under the oversight of one road supervisor or engineer. That person, who reports to the commissioners court, employs all county road personnel and oversees all equipment and facilities within one operating process.

This unified approach gives a county flexibility to shuttle equipment and manpower and to set up countywide maintenance and purchasing contracts. When the buying power of all four county precincts are combined, lower costs often result.

Although Taylor County has resisted efforts to unify its road system, most counties that have adopted unitization have realized significant savings. Knox County, for example, has saved $150,000 since unitizing five years ago.

In Shackelford County, residents who want county commissioners to adopt a unified road system have circulated a petition demanding a vote in January on the issue. One unified supporter from Albany described the "way-we've always-done-it" separate-precinct system as being as out of date as "a covered wagon on the interstate."

County governments must learn how to make more efficient use of every tax dollar. And like it or not, county commissioners these days find larger issues than road maintenance facing them. Put those two factors together, and it's clear that county governments need to take a hard, close look at unifying road maintenance under one roof. The rate of change is rapidly leaving our beloved covered wagons behind.