Podcast panel urges updating county’s road management system amid changing circumstances
Supporters of a proposal to move Bosque County to a new road management system say the change would help local county government respond more effectively to major development projects and better represent the wishes of taxpayers while improving transparency and efficiency in road maintenance.
The issue was the focus of a May 26 podcast recorded in Meridian and hosted by Clifton Record Tribune publisher Brett Voss. Joining the discussion were Bosque County We Decide founder Billy Wren and Bosque Central Appraisal District board member Justin Blake. Sandy Raushenberger of Fair Appraisals for Bosque County moderated questions submitted by viewers and listeners online to the Facebook Live broadcast.
The panelists cited Bosque County’s negotiations involving the CyrusOne data center and reports of additional data center projects being considered in the region as examples of why county officials need more time to focus on policy, contracts and long-range planning.
The proposal comes more than a decade after former Bosque County judge Dewey Ratliff championed a similar effort. According to Voss, Ratliff successfully petitioned to place the issue before voters in 2015, but the measure ultimately failed.
Voss noted that Ratliff’s effort largely focused on road efficiency. Today’s discussion, however, reflects concerns about the county’s ability to thoughtfully navigate and negotiate increasingly complex economic development issues.
“What’s happened is with data centers moving in, solar farms moving in, the job went from 95 percent roads, five percent policy and decision making,” Blake said. “It should be 95-percent policy and decision making, and five-percent roads.”
Under Bosque County’s current precinct-based system, county commissioners are directly responsible for managing roads, road crews and separately budgeted road funds within their precincts. A unit road system would consolidate road operations and budgets under a countywide road department led by a professional road administrator.
“The unit road system hires a professional road manager to take that responsibility out of the county commissioner’s hands, so that they’re freed up to focus on more of the policy and procedure side of the county,” Blake said.
The panelists argue that the proposal is fundamentally about fairness and accountability.
“It’s not based on if you live in Laguna Park,” Wren said. “It’s not based on precinct. It’s based on priorities.”
Under a unit system, the panelists envision countywide planning rather than separate precinct-based priorities. Wren said a professional manager would develop a long-term roadmap for road maintenance and improvements.
“There would be a master plan that would be created by this manager, and there would be a set of priorities that would go along with that, which would be transparent to every citizen in Bosque County,” Wren said.
The discussion repeatedly returned to the role that large-scale development projects, such as hyperscale data centers, have played in reviving interest in the issue. Blake argued that small rural counties face challenges when negotiating with multinational corporations and managing projects that can reshape local infrastructure and public services.
“Big capital moved into small towns and tried to privatize public resources for private gain, and export all the negative externalities to the public,” Blake said.
During the question-and-answer session, the viewers of the live-stream online raised concerns about whether road crews would lose jobs, whether taxes would increase, and whether the county would gain additional authority over development in unincorporated areas.
Wren and Blake said they found no evidence from other counties that road employees lost their jobs after adopting a unit system. Instead, the panelists said crews are typically retained while management and equipment deployment become more centralized.
During the podcast, the panelists said the unit road system would help Bosque County build the capacity to meet future challenges by coordinating resources around shared priorities, increasing transparency and freeing county leaders to focus on the long-term well-being of the community.
Possible concerns include the cost of hiring a professional road administrator, the transition from a system residents have used for generations, and whether voters would be comfortable moving some road management responsibilities away from elected politicians.
The panelists emphasized that commissioners would continue to represent their precincts and advocate for residents under a unit system.
To place the proposal before voters, Wren said, supporters must collect approximately 1,000 signatures from registered Bosque County voters. The signatures would be submitted to the county clerk for verification. If enough valid signatures are collected, the measure could be placed on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The panelists said they plan to hold town halls throughout the county and distribute educational materials explaining the proposal before voters are asked to decide.
“This is your government, this is democracy in action,” Blake said. “This is a petition that actually means something in terms of structural change.”
Photos by NATHAN DIEBENOW
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