Town of Richfield Highway Superintendent Mike Kress will be meeting
with Otsego County’s Public Works Department, Tuesday, Aug. 9,
regarding the town’s maintenance of county roads.
The town of Richfield plows portions of county roads 27, 25A, 25 and
24, which it has been doing for a number of years. In return for this
service Richfield is reimbursed by the county on a pay scale that is
based on employee wages and the rate at which it costs to run the
equipment.
However, inflation and increasing fuel prices has resulted in
costing the town money to plow the 15 mile stretch of county road.
“Everything is going up – fuel, replacement parts and maintenance,”
said Kress.
The pay scale that the county offers to towns to plow their roads is
a fixed rate, which hasn’t been updated in a number of years.
Kress, who has been Richfield’s highway superintendent for nine
years, said in the past, plowing the roads was not a problem. “Now it
is not economically feasible, we can’t justify the expenses,” said
Kress. “There has to be a point where things go up. The town taxpayers
should not bare the burden if our costs go up.”
Kress reported that other area towns, such as the town of Edmeston,
have stopped plowing county roads due to the economic increases the job
is creating.
Kress said the county’s answer to the proposed pay increase has been
that they will buy more trucks and do it themselves. The problem
with this however, is that it cannot be certain that county plow trucks
will respond to roads in Richfield with as much timeliness as town
employees do, leaving some roads plowed and others covered in snow.
“It’s an advantage to us if all the roads get done at the same time,” said Kress.
Currently, Otsego County is sanding their own roads, while Richfield
plows them, but Kress said that county trucks don’t make it into
Richfield until about 6 a.m. while his employees have the roads plowed
by 4:30 a.m.
Richfield’s most recent contract with the county ended last winter.
If Kress’ Aug. 9 meeting does not provide increased payment for plowing
county roads, Kress said it would be up to the Town Board to decide on
whether he and his crew will continue to plow those roads.
“I am at least going to address the issue and see what they say,”
said Kress. “The county can’t just use the excuse that they can’t
afford it; it’s their responsibility.”
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