The cost of maintaining county roads

To the Editor;

I was the county road agent for a few years for Piscataquis County. When I was doing this job, I found many grants with the MDOT (Maine roads) that helped save thousands of dollars for taxpayers.

One such grant was for road signs, the county paid 10 cents on the dollar for signs, posts, and bolts. A stop sign with all this was about $300 to install without the grant. So, the cost was $30 for Piscataquis County. I did an inventory of all our signs during my travels and ordered accordingly. We had a stockpile ahead for many years doing this. 

Cones the same thing, 10 cents on the dollar and barracks. For guardrails we used a company out of Carmel that had redone rails. Again, great savings. Culverts, I found a buy ahead program with a grant from MDOT and we saved and also bought them in the county form a local dealer. This I did as much as possible.

We made a 10-year paving program. We saved the county in many ways that we finished the faving program in seven years. This got us on track to have the roads in better shape. There was a road salt buy program we did to save contractors, thus lower bids on winter maintenance. Buying calcium for summer roads, same thing. I had great contractors to work with in different areas of Piscataquis County

I enjoyed my time doing all this and talking and making contact with county residents that were the eyes of problems on roads where they lived. The savings of all this are there, you just need to look and make contacts. As Bill Belichick says, “Do your job.’ I was lucky to have a good board and manager to work for during my time. I moved to Florida, retired, and became a consultant on snow and ice here. The job is slow, but I enjoy it. God bless you all in Piscataquis County, a great place to grow up and live.

Tracy K. Lord

Homosassa, Florida