County proposes labeling level B roads

A group of Jackson County residents, including many from the Bellevue area, showed up at the Jackson County Board of Supervisors meeting last week fearing that the level B roads they travel on might not continue to get snow removal and other maintenance services in the future.

Their fear stems from the county’s proposal to officially document and identify all level B roads.

Jackson County’s level B road maintenance ordinance requires all level B roads to be identified with a sign at all points of access to warn the public of the lower level of maintenance. 

According to county engineer Jayden Scheckel, not all level B roads currently have signs or are properly documented.

The ordinance also states that only the minimum effort, expense, and attention will be provided to keep level B roads open to traffic. These roads are not maintained on a regular basis and are not cleared of snow and ice.

The problem is that some level B roads have been receiving level A maintenance, which includes snow removal and road surfacing, Scheckel said. 

“Without the documentation of these roads being properly classified as level B, there is no support for the minimal maintenance activities of these roads and the effects thereof,” Scheckel said. “Our department is simply cleaning up things that should have already been completed.”

Properly identifying and documenting level B roads would “make the paperwork match reality” and limit the county’s liability should an injury or vehicular damage occur on a level B road, supervisor Don Schwenker said. Scheckel added that the county could be liable if a person sustains injury or vehicular damage on an unlabeled level B road. 

“We’re not changing anything,” supervisor Mike Steines said. “We had minimal maintenance on all those roads before, and that, to my thinking, is going to continue. We’re just going to take some liability off the county.”

Some county residents are not so sure that things won’t change. 

Gene Roling, a Bellevue resident, said he often travels on a level B road and supports the proposed documentation and signage, but he is worried the county will begin strictly enforcing the ordinance.

“But now to say that, all of a sudden, you’re never going to run a snowplow down there, that’s a whole different ballgame,” Roling told the supervisors. “You’re basically already admitting that it’s going to change.”

When the Maquoketa Sentinel-Press asked Scheckel for clarification as to whether the level B roads that have been receiving snow removal and maintenance will continue to receive those services if the proposed resolution is passed, he said that any roads designated level B will follow the level B maintenance ordinance, which includes minimal maintenance and no snow removal.

But County Attorney John Kies told the Sentinel-Press that the county can treat some level B roads differently on a “reasonable basis,” such as higher traffic or nearby residences.

“All of the efforts of the ordinances and resolution are being done to not only protect the county from liability, but to also properly warn the traveling public of the minimal maintenance roads and to enter at their own risk by means of signage,” Scheckel said.

“We’re trying to do it the best way,” Schwenker said. “Sometimes it benefits people and sometimes it’s a bit of an inconvenience.”

The supervisors tabled their decision on whether to pass the resolution. Schwenker said the supervisors will put out another notice for a future public hearing on the level B roads resolution because “we want to keep a good conversation,” he said.

In other county news:

• The supervisors approved the passing of proposed area service road ordinances #315 and #316. The new ordinances update the current ordinances, which highlight the county’s maintenance obligations of level B and level C roads, to follow Iowa Department of Transportation standards.