Looking for innovative techniques to maintain county roads, the Lincoln County Conservation District will work with the three county commissioners to initiate a pilot program, the first of its kind in Oklahoma.
Gary Bledsoe, a farmer and rancher, is chairman of the Board of Directors of the Lincoln County Conservation District.
He said a special training session has been scheduled for the three Lincoln County commissioners and their staffs for Wednesday, Sep. 7, at the Lake View Ridge at Bell Cow Lake.
“The Conservation staff is bringing in engineers and additional staff for this meeting,” Bledsoe said.
He commented, “We’ve been handling county roads the same way for 100 years. There has to be a more efficient way. In Lincoln County, we’re addressing more efficient ways.”
The program is aimed at unpaved roads and finding a better method of maintaining them.
Bledsoe said working with the Legislature and the Lincoln Conservation District specifically, State Rep. Kevin Wallace of Wellston “Brought the funds to this program.
“The amount of the funds statewide is $450,000 and Lincoln County will receive $150,000 for three projects. Each county commissioner will have one project,” he noted.
Each county commissioner will receive $50,000 for his project. “They must match that with $50,000 of in-kind service,” Bledsoe said.
After the training session from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., “We’re going out to look at sites,” he said.
“This is an opportunity for Lincoln County to do it well and if we do we have the opportunity for additional funding. It will be a grant program that the counties will have to apply for and the grants will be awarded based on merit,” Bledsoe said.
While the pilot program in Lincoln County is new to Oklahoma, Bledsoe said, “Arkansas has a very successful program and we’re going to try and model ours after them.”
He mentioned that Pennsylvania also is another state that has a “very successful unpaved roads program.”
Bledsoe noted also that Arkansas will have someone here to help with the training session for commissioners and their staffs.
“We’re looking for new ideas, new ways rather than spend money, spend money, spend money,” he said.
“We’re trying to get the water off the roads. I’m not being critical of what they are doing now,” Bledsoe said.
“These are very, very different than what we are doing now,” he said.
He explained that three years ago the State Conservation Commission requested all the districts create a five-year plan that would alleviate roadside erosion of unpaved roads. “The commission was encouraging us to look at various types of erosion, wind erosion, water erosion, roadside erosion.”
Bledsoe said, “There is no hard and fast time frame on the project, noting, “The quicker we do this, the quicker we can obtain additional funding.”
He pointed out, “It’s our project this year for our five-year plan.
“Truly, all of this stemmed from the project we have initiated.”