During a nearly three hour workshop on Monday afternoon, the McCulloch County Commissioners went over several aspects of moving to a voluntary unit road system for the county. Commissioner Carol Anderson introduced Mason County Judge Sheree Hardin and Road Administrator Chris Magee who gave an overview of how the unit road system has worked in Mason County for many years. Mason County has 272 miles of roads with 16 miles being paved and they operate with a six man road crew. Their current road & bridge budget is $1,900,000. McCulloch County has about 400 miles of county roads and has currently six road hands. A little over a million dollars is currently budgeted for roads in McCulloch County with tax levy of .037 dedicated to the Road/Bridge fund.
There were several questions asked by those in the audience in regard to the costs of operating a unit road system, how it would be structured, what the salary requirements would be for the Supervisor and why going with a unified system would be better for McCulloch County taxpayers. Most Commissioners seemed willing to give up a good portion of their salary to help fund a Road Supervisor. Following next Monday’s Commissioner’s Court meeting, there will be another workshop to hone in more on what a unit road system might look like for the county. Until then, each Commissioner will look at the numbers in order to build the position of Road Superintendent along with formulating a job description.
