Grayson County Precinct 1 Commissioner Jeff Whitmire says that they had a successful year improving over 42 miles of county roads this year despite the numerous weeks of rains that caused havoc in 2015. Whitmire also says precinct 1 was able to help the small cities with over six miles of low cost street improvements.
“This is the highest productivity of any precinct. This wouldn’t get done without a great crew, who is committed to the job.” said Whitmire on the Grayson County Precinct 1 Facebook page.
Whitmire says he starts every year with a work plan based on the available materials and budget for the year. The road priorities take into account overall condition and traffic load in comparison to other roads in the precinct. A higher traffic load road will get a safety priority to a lower traffic load road. That plan is great, until mother nature makes changes.
“We had quite a year when it comes to damage related to weather conditions. We have had ice, floods, drought, floods, and then floods again.” said Whitmire. “Flood damage to county roads this year cost the precinct almost $100 thousand dollars. These types of occurrences move our work priorities, to ensuring the safety of the public.”
It is an election year and Whitmire will have to be re-elected over challenger Scott Renfro to remain the Precinct 1 County Commissioner. Whitmire says that he’s making plans for for 2016 regardless of the outcome.
“Rest assured that we are not resting on accomplishments. I already have a production plan ready for the coming year. Without including the flood repairs, I still plan to work on 44 miles of county roads in 2016. On our “rebuild” roads, we should start grinding and adding new base rock during February. We should begin paving those sections in April. Our hot mix and seal coat work should run from May through September. During the season we also expect to help our cities with around seven miles of city street work. This is an ambitious plan, but if weather co-operates, we should be able to accomplish our goal.”
