Roads

[cowman]

In the municipality I live in the roads are pretty bad. The municipality privatized the whole thing two years ago and contracted it all out. The service is down a bit but all and all it was probably a good thing. For one thing our taxes actually went down about 10% last year and no increase this year. On top of that we are getting a lot of new gravel and rebuilding. Our roads take a pounding because we have a lot of heavy traffic from the oilfield as well as a lot of acreages. I was just wondering how other municipalities are making out in regard to their roads? My municipality has a strong tax base and would be considered one of the richer counties in the province.

[rookie]

In my county there has not been any big tax cuts that I have seen. We are on the edge of most of the oil patch development. What I have seen is a trend of more and more gravel roads being paved with that cold mix stuff . There is less dust, but more pot holes to dodge. The grain trucks really do a number on them. And as for the roads still in gravel, the graders don't seem to come around until its' a rough ride.

[pandiana]

We find it harder and harder to get any attention for road maintenance. We have a mile of gravel road servicing five families. I can't remember when we had gravel added. We do have a grader though. He regularly grades the dirt on the hilly roads to keep it fresh. Especially on the hills in front of my gates where 18 wheelers need to get in to unload straw or grain. Its very exiting to watch some of these big trucks trying to get moving up or down these hills, especially in winter.

[cowman]

pandiana:really liked that about keeping the roads fresh!
Rookie: cold pavement, or any pavement on black dirt is just a recipe for dissaster. Mostly they do this for dust control and instead you need pot hole control! Better to just keep it in gravel.

[cowman]

One other thing is I'm sure no knocking the grader operators. They do a very good job with what is available. If some of these "experts" in charge of the municipalities would listen to the people actually doing the work we would have a lot better roads! So what else is new!