KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Kaufman County Commissioners are planning to workshop establishing a set of engineering standards roads must be brought up to before they can be accepted into the county road maintenance system.
KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Kaufman County Commissioners are planning to workshop establishing a set of engineering standards roads must be brought up to before they can be accepted into the county road maintenance system.
The decision to hold a workshop came about after a March 31 special meeting of the commissioners court in which officials discussed the possibility of the county taking over three roads in precinct 3: Cheyenne Lane, East Lane and Redd Foxx Road. North Lane was also considered, but it was determined the road is already part of the county system.
County Commissioner Pct. 2 Williams “Skeet” Phillips suggested a more in-depth look at the county’s road standards after a discussion of Bedrick Lane in precinct 1.
In 2012, the court voted to accept Bedrick Lane into the county road maintenance system if the residents on the road each agreed to pay $8,000 to bring it up to the county’s standards for a subdivision road.
The trouble is, one of the Bedrick Lane residents, Roseanne Morrow said, J. Allison of Bass and Associates LLP in Austin, a law firm representing county governments, said the road doesn’t qualify as a subdivision road.
So what are the county standards for a non-subdivision, private road? There are none, County Judge Bruce Wood told inForney.com, adding that it’s time to sort that out.
“I’m not sure we can set a different standard for” non-subdivision roads than we do for subdivision roads, Wood said. “We have pretty tough standards. Accepting different standards for different types of roads “would not be treating everybody fairly and equally.”
Phillips, though, told inForney.com he’d like to see the county accept a variety of roads and establish standards for those that should be gravel, field top or asphalt, in addition to the concrete roads required for subdivisions.
He said he had no intention of voting for the three precinct 3 roads because it wasn’t clear if they were up to standard — though Phillips admitted he believed Redd Foxx Road to be as sturdy as concrete.
None of the three roads was accepted into the county road maintenance system after either not receiving a motion or enough votes to proceed. During the voting process Phillips said he was concerned about accepting the three roads that could cost an “arm and a leg” to fix immediately.
“We can’t accept these if we don’t know they’re up to standards,” he said.
County Commissioner Pct. 1 Jimmy Vrzalik agreed.
On Monday’s agenda, the commissioners are set to discuss setting a date to meet for a workshop to potentially establish more encompassing standards for roads looking to be included in the county system.
The roads in question
Two of the roads — East Lane and Redd Foxx Road — dead end at gates leading to properties owned by County Commissioner Pct. 3 Kenneth Schoen and Vrzalik, respectively.
East Lane runs parallel to U.S. Hwy. 80, north of the highway with about 125 feet of land and railroad tracks between the two roads. The road begins at a perpendicular intersection with North Lane and runs about 1,900 feet until it reaches a gate to Schoen’s land. The property to the north of East Lane is separated by a barbed-wire fence.
Redd Foxx Road begins at the intersection with CR 2578 and runs southeast about 1,091 feet until it reaches a gate to Vrzalik’s sand and gravel quarry. The agenda from March 31’s meeting said 2,100 feet of Redd Foxx Road was being considered for acceptance into the county road system, indicating another 1,000 feet or so of road behind the gate, winding around the quarry, would have come under county purview.
There’s a “no trespassing” sign at the entrance to Redd Foxx Road and no other driveways or roads connect to it.
Cheyenne Lane runs more than 2,700 feet starting out northeast from CR 303. It makes about a 90-degree left turn after some 2,000 feet and includes driveways to a half dozen homes or so.
There has been some concern about the two roads nearly exclusively serving commissioners’ properties.
Wood said there are no county rules in place requiring that a minimum number of properties or residences be accessible by a road in order for it to be included in the county road maintenance system.
In his conversation with InForney.com, Phillips said he understands why the roads were considered — “everybody wants their road (on the county system) whether you’re a commissioner or not a commissioner” — but expressed a reluctance to have every county resident “paying for a single home’s needs.”
In full disclosure, Phillips never explicitly said he did or did not specifically have a problem with East Lane or Redd Foxx Road just because they lead to fellow commissioners’ properties.
