The road has been rough going in Douglas County's highway department for the better part of the year.
With sources of money shrinking and the workload growing, the strain is starting to show. And no wonder. Crews worked from sun up to sun down last summer to reopen well-traveled County Road A in Solon Springs.
During August, two dump trucks crashed head on, injuring two workers. Repair costs totaled $180,000. That's to say nothing of the pain and suffering of the workers who were lucky to escape the collision alive.
Less than two months later, highway workers again found themselves in peril when a semi tractor entered a steam-filled work zone -- vapor created by paving in the rain. The semi struck destroyed an asphalt paver where four men laid asphalt on Highway 35 in Dairyland.
This has contributed to morale problems, and the county wants to pay a consultant $7,600 to resolve them. Perhaps that could end up saving taxpayer's money in the long run. If labor-management disagreements contributed toward these costly, life-risking situations, it's a pittance compared with the nearly $500,000 of equipment destroyed this year. That's to say nothing of the medical expenses and lost time for injured workers.
ADVERTISEMENT
Easier to address is an ongoing battle over something as basic as water. Literally, it is water. Management and staff have been butting heads over a basic necessity, a necessity readily available in one county highway facility but denied at four others. The issue was brought to light in March, when the county highway committee received a letter from workers seeking a simple drink of water.
The irony is that bottled water is readily accessible at the one county garage that has plumbing. It's being provided because ground water is contaminated. Rather than risk the health and safety of workers, they should drink bottled water -- the daily cost is undoubtedly cheaper than medical bills and lost productivity if even one worker becomes ill from drinking tainted water.
However, that same logic should apply to the workers who don't have the ability to open a tap because there are no plumbing facilities in the county's four outlying stations. But the county's highway commissioner, Paul Halverson, has denied outlying stations water for budgetary reasons; he said workers were seeking about $500 worth of water, less one-fifth of what is spent at the main highway facility.
Yet even when the issue boiled over in front of the full county board in October, workers were still left facing a drought at the outlying county facilities.
It's likely that these highway department issues are more complex than a drink of water -- but one can't help but wonder if county taxpayers are going to foot the $7,600 bill for a consultant when $500 worth of water could mend fences and relieve labor-management stress in what appears to be a silly fight. Sometimes, compromise can be a good thing.
