No big whoop since my last post..., except the most important work that we've done for the future of our roads in Precinct 1. We have been doing major ditch cleaning throughout the month of February and so far in March. People in the precinct are surprised and sometimes upset with the way the ditches were designed to look like and function. Every "old school" road man has told me that no matter how much asphalt or cold mix you put on a road, it won't last long if your ditches allow water to stand at base level or roll down the road instead of into the ditch. We have done parts of CR 1475 and CR 1465 in the Bridges Chapel area. Then we moved to the end of the Old Paris Road and worked the curve back to CR 1350. From there we moved to both ends of CR 1345. We also worked the frequently traveled CR 1317 between Hwy 271 Bus. and Hwy 271 By-pass. We just finished the East end of CR 1535 and will be moving to CR 1450 and CR 1452. I've been told people have given me the nickname "Ditch Don". Understanding the importance of this effort, I answer to it proudly. Precinct 1's crew should be commended for their efforts as well.
We also have spent about a week in February patching some badly damaged road from the snows we had this winter. Culverts were installed on CR 1468 for Mr Coil, on CR 1350 for Ms. Cole, on CR 1046 for Ms. Hendricks and we are going to fix a culvert on CR 1315 this week.
I know many are concerned about the selection of Pate Transportation by the selection committee ( Jerry Boatner, Darrell Grubbs, Mike Fields, Mike Ahrens and me). Let me say that we have been doing every thing we can to follow rather strict guidelines set forth by TxDot. The committee is working as a committee generally works, unpredicably.