District 2 Commissioner Danny Barksdale

District 2 Commissioner Danny Barksdale expressed his frustration at Monday’s Limestone County Commission meeting in regards to the county’s repaving of Wells Road. Paving crews are nearing completion of the project but the reason for the repaving is what has Barksdale upset.

In March, District 2 crews along with the Limestone County engineering team made base repairs to Wells Road. Barksdale noted, “They found the original layers as follows: top layer-1½ inches of asphalt, second layer-8 to 10 inches of creek gravel, third layer- white or gray mud. Obviously, this is not satisfactory for today’s large trucks and equipment. Probably when roads were paved or widened in the 1950’s and 60’s, the ditches were dug, and that material was used as road base — whatever type dirt or material it happened to be. This was probably sufficient for single axle dump trucks and lighter equipment of the time. Over the years, much larger equipment and tri axle dump trucks have become standard equipment. Our roads were simply not constructed for that much weight.”

“Our paving crew is completing the paving of Wells Road at a cost of $ 250,000. Wells wasn’t in top-notch shape, but it was three to five years away from paving had it not been torn up by truck traffic that was made necessary by a subdivision,” Barksdale said.

Barksdale has suggested that Limestone County consider implementing impact fees for new developments in the county, many of which are in his District 2.

“I do not know how many lots are on the property, but if there are at least 50, and we had a $ 5,000 per lot impact fee, we would have let the people causing the damage and expense help pay for it, instead of infringing on the taxpayers of Limestone county. That is what I am calling ‘self-sustaining growth’ — the people causing the expense need to pay for it. We are already contributing over 50 percent of our Public Building, Bridge, and Road Fund to the county General Fund, so we certainly cannot fund our growth costs with this fund,” Barksdale said.