Road Complaints Give Commissioners A Rough Ride Officials Take Their Bumps From Angry Farmers, Residents At Freeman

All roads lead to Rockford. But as two Spokane County commissioners learned Wednesday, it’s a bumpy ride.

In the first of what they hope will be quarterly journeys into the hinterlands, commissioners met with residents of the rural, southeastern corner of the county.

The conversation at Freeman High School rarely strayed from roads and the county’s care of them.

Farmers and small-town residents complained that snow is removed from main arterials too seldom and that crews spend too much time plowing back roads.

Graders, they said, rarely are seen on gravel roads. Or, crews set the plows too deep or come when roads are too wet and make conditions worse.

“The washboard gets so bad that with a tandem-axle truck, 2 mph is about the maximum,” said one farmer, who complained of having to replace the leaf springs on several trucks.

“I replace an average of a tire a week,” said another rural resident.

Most who spoke said service has declined since the county closed its shop in Rockford. The shop now is open only in winter; crews are dispatched out of Spangle the rest of the year.

Two county road workers agreed that the change has hurt service and added to the cost of road work.

Kirk Mills, a grader operator and Rockford resident, said he used to hear about road problems from people who live along the roads. Now, he doesn’t hear about problems until someone gets angry enough to call his boss.

“I don’t like someone calling downtown … saying ‘Mr. Mills is doing a bad job,”’ Mills said.

Phil Barto, head of the county’s road department, said the shop was closed to save money and because scattered shops made communication between workers difficult.

The building at Rockford is too small and outdated, Barto said. Some residents laughed and others hissed when he said it would cost $250,000 to replace it.

“We’d like to have a building like that, but I don’t think we need it,” said one man.

Harry Amend, superintendent of Freeman schools, noted that volunteer workers built a shop at the high school for about $30,000.

“That (group effort) is not uncommon for this community,” he said.

Commissioners Steve Hasson and Phil Harris promised that within the next 60 days they’ll consider reopening the Rockford shop. Commissioner Skip Chilberg was in Seattle on Wednesday and did not get back to Spokane in time for the meeting.

Asked whether Valley incorporation will hurt service in rural areas, commissioners said the impact won’t be known until after the May 16 incorporation vote.

“I’m one of those people that don’t think it’s going to be all doomsday,” said Harris, who predicted the county would become more efficient.

“I’m not as optimistic as Phil,” said Hasson.

Residents of urban unincorporated areas like the Valley pay three-quarters of the cost for road work in rural areas, according to county staff.

If Valley residents vote to incorporate, their city probably would pay the county to provide road work. But the new city wouldn’t help pay for work outside its boundaries, as Valley residents now do.