By Penny Deleon
In response to the recent article on the road construction projects in Lander County, I noticed a few problems in the success of the projects. $213,625 for Kingston is a lot of money to squander away anytime, especially in hard times like we are facing right now.
Apparently the funds were supposed to be for the recovering of Tahoe and Toyaibe streets, two of the most traveled streets in disrepair in the area. After the funds were here, and the construction was started, it was noted (all of a sudden) that Tahoe needed more base; there just wasn't enough funds to complete the "so called" plan to repair that street. Apparently, at that time, work was stopped on Tahoe; the construction manager meets with Kingston's "self appointed elitists" for discussion on how to best use the remaining funds. They alone make the decision. They unfortunately decide to work on the streets with the least traffic pattern and used basically only by the residents on those streets, themselves. So the way I see it, the funds were used to cover private drives. Dust control was the reasoning for their decision. What about the dust control for the highly traveled street going to the General Store and the (much disliked) church?
I am wondering if there is an engineer that works for the Lander County Road Department. If so, is there any reason why that person could not have given an accurate analysis as to the needs of the projected street repair for our streets, especially Tahoe? Does this engineer actually have a degree? Is this engineer trained in the study of road repair? Is this engineer qualified to make appropriate decisions on road repair? If this engineer is a qualified engineer working for the county, my assumption would be that he knows his job. At that point a cost analysis should have been completed and a solid plan made for the construction. It is ridiculous to start the project and have to stop and change direction after construction begins, leaving streets unfinished. If the funds allotted for this project, was short, it should have been discussed prior to arranging for the Hunewill Company to begin the project. At that point, Lander County officials and ALL of the Kingston towns people should have been involved with the decision as to what should have been done next.
To begin with, a questionnaire should have been sent out to all property owners in the community. The results would have decided fairly as to the best use for all those funds. I would think at that time a solid construction plan would have been made by the engineering studies and results. If the funds were short for this year's projects, they should have been put aside to earn interest and added to future funding.
When you send a large sum of money to assist a small community in any projects, the strong will take from the weak and do as they wish with the money if there is no higher authority to prevent it. I am sickened that $213,625 was appropriated to the Kingston community for much-needed road repair for two highly traveled streets, and foolishly used on some of the least-traveled streets.
Most of the Kingston residents moved here due to the quiet and peacefulness of the area. Most of the residents are retired and elderly, they find it takes a lot of energy to fight the powers that be at the town meetings and won't attend any more to assist in Kingston's decision-making process'. This is the kind of behavior that you see when a small out of the way community is left to its own with no oversee of the county officials. It has never worked and never will, the stronger will always take the power from the weak. I hold Lander County responsible for this blatant misappropriation of funds.
My questions to the county now are:
1. Where do those funds com from?
2. How often do those funds become available?
3. How long will our streets and roads in poor condition stay in poor condition on our high traffic areas?
4. Are your intentions to continue to allow a very few residents decide what to do with our valuable funds?
Misappropriation of funds cost us trillions and billions in tax dollars every year at the federal level, it starts at this level.
Penny Deleon is a resident of Kingston.
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