The Jasper County Board of Supervisors are starting to discuss how to maintain 927 miles of gravel roads with rising rock prices and operating costs. Jasper County Engineer Mike Frietsch has proposed downgrading 300 miles of gravel roads, so they no longer get rock, and are graded just once per year. 

“Unfortunately, with the miles of roads we got, there are roads that are naturally going to get less and less rock as we try to triage and figure out where we need to put our resources at.”

The 300 miles of gravel roads Frietsch has identified for basically no maintenance are sections of over a dozen roads throughout Jasper County. Supervisor Doug Cupples has indicated “fairness” is a component he’ll be looking for in the plan that’s developed.

“I am really thankful we are going to be able to sit and have a conversation about this because it’s not just one road we are looking at, it’s multiple. So we need to have a really good plan on how to treat people fairly.”

On Tuesday, the Jasper County Board of Supervisors ended three weeks of discussion with property owners along one mile of North 75th Avenue West that was recommended for limited maintenance. The board unanimously decided to take no action on the recommendation at this time.