Special Road meets in New Year

The El Dorado Springs Special Road District held its first meeting of the New Year at 5:25 p.m. Friday, Jan. 3. They will meet again at the same time on Friday, Jan. 31, in the District Headquarters Building.

All members were present: Chairman Lalan Cole, Ron Swopes and Mike 

Bush. District Employee Carl Swager and Bookkeeper/Secretary Linda Breeden were present.

Ms. Breeden said that the district ended the year with $360,554.05. The district normally gets a big influx of taxes in February from the Cedar County Collector. Per their agreement, they pay 25% of taxes received to the City of El Dorado Springs. The Road District paid the City $272.57 for November tax collections.

Swager told the board the truck is fixed, the spreaders are all fixed and there is salt in the barn (for treating winter road problems.)

He said he finished mowing roadsides and is now blading roads.

Board Member Ron Swopes said, “The future looks bright and you can quote me on that.”

When the Sun asked which roads got work in 2019, Swager said, “All of ‘em.”

He said he put down 500 tons of cold mix. He used both chip and seal and cold mix on black top improvements and repairs.

The board authorized Ms. Breeden to begin work on the 2020 budget. Swager estimated he would need 500 to 1,000 tons of cold mix for the 47 miles of gravel and blacktop roads depending on the weather.

The board approved a payment of liability and auto insurance of $10,394.62.