A capacity crowd filled the Falcon Fire Protection District station Aug. 4 to hear Douglas Bruce, El Paso county commissioner (District 2) and John McCarty, director of the El Paso County Department of Transportation, who addressed issues related to county roads and bridges, and Rosemary Bakes-Martin, public health administrator.Bruce discussed the road projects approved by the commissioners. (See “County” on page .) Paving Rio Road is among the projects. “The cost of maintaining a gravel road was about $50,000 a year,” he said. “The cost of paving the road was $150,000. So, in three years of saving on maintenance, you pay for the road.” Residents spoke out about their concerns that paving Rio Road would increase speeding problems. McCarty said speed bumps would cause problems for snow plows. Bruce and McCarty urged residents to report speeding vehicles to the sheriff’s department.John McCarty talked about budget issues facing the DOT. The county has the second most road miles of any county in the state (Weld County is first), with over 1,000 miles of gravel roads and 950 miles of paved roads, he said. “With our limited resources, one thing I can tell you is that overall the condition of our assets is not going to get any better,” McCarty said. “As something gets maintained, there are just as many things deteriorating that we can’t get to.”He added that the DOT had about 3,700 requests for service in 2006. This year, requests are already 50 percent ahead of last year. “A lot of that is because of the winter we had and what it did to our roads,” he said.Bruce expressed concern that half of the assessed city property tax earmarked for roads and bridges goes to the city of Colorado Springs. “We are giving the city of Colorado Springs $3 million a year out of the taxes we collect,” he said. “I’m trying to get more money for Mr. McCarty’s department, but I don’t have any support on the commission.”McCarty said the DOT’s annual budget is about $14 million a year, and this figure has remained flat even as the county has grown and assessed values have increased. The county commissioners have reduced the mill levy that finances the roads and bridges fund and that generates about $8 million of the total DOT budget. The balance of the department’s budget is from the highway user tax fund, which is funded by state and federal gas taxes. “We’re not growing the revenues received from the vehicle tax because that is a tax per gallon, and it doesn’t go up as the price of gas goes up,” he said.McCarty also explained the county bridge inspection procedure. The DOT contracts with professional inspection companies to evaluate the safety of more than 135 county bridges every other year. “The worst they could find in El Paso County were some missing signs,” he said. “We take very seriously the maintenance of our bridges, and we aggressively repair bridges with our own internal crew.”He said the county hopes to obtain federal money to replace four timber bridges in the next year or so.The DOT service request number is staffed 24 hours, and McCarty urged residents with a question or request for service to call 520-6460 or visit the Web site at http://adm2.elpasoco.com/transprt/service_request.asp.Bruce introduced Rosemary Bates-Martin, director of the El Paso County Department of Health and Environment. Bates-Martin urged county residents to take precautions against West Nile Virus. “We have seen a heavier West Nile outbreak this year,” she said. “And August is usually the heaviest month.” She also warned against hanta virus, which is contracted from mouse droppings. It can be fatal. For more detailed information and preventive tips, visit www.elpasocountyhealth.org.
