Muddy county roads pause Osage work

Due to excessive rain causing damage to roads scattered across Union County, the patch repair project on Osage Street will be temporarily paused as Union County Roads works across the county.

Heavy rain early in the week and complaints on the damage done to county roads flooded Union County Secondary Roads, roads Superintendent Al Hysell reported to the board during last week’s meeting.

Osage Street, the site of a Union County patching project, is a popular road for hauling commercial vehicles especially during the harvest season. During the construction, the road has been reduced to one lane and recommended only for local traffic. The length of construction extends from Highway 34 to Adams Street.

A detour has been established through Commerce Road in the meantime. Hysell expects this detour to remain as Osage construction is most likely to extend into winter.

Other patching around Union County is expected to be completed before winter, Hysell said. Estimating where patching is needed, Hysell said “about every road” has somewhere needing a patch. With lower temperatures approaching quickly, the time is now for repair.

“This is a bad time of the year to do it, but we can’t rock in the wintertime,” Hysell said. “Hopefully, we can get it packed down and get some good rock over the top of it before it gets too cold.”

In other Union County news...

Two Creston mobile homes were approved to have their taxes abated. During a discussion to approve one of these abatements, questions were raised on the taxation process.

One property owner, who has been deceased since 2021, has had a deck over the mobile home taxed, with those taxes in years since not paid. The mobile home is taxed separately. Due to an investor purchasing the mobile home and not the deck, taxes still apply to the deceased owner, forcing abatement.

Union County Supervisors discussed the rare circumstance and alternative ways to avoid it in the future. Supervisor Rick Friday floated the idea of refusing abatement. Supervisor Dennis Hopkins called the situation “a loophole” and wanted to look into more concrete guidelines for property ownership.

“We’re not going to get paid because this person’s dead; I understand that,” Hopkins said. “But, I don’t want us to be back next year ... and still see no one owning it.”