Three short roads to go on chopping block

Three short Whitman County roads will be on commissioners’ chopping block in the next three weeks.

The county’s public works department has been working for the past two years to rid the department of small roads that serve only one property owner.

Public Works Director Mark Storey said doing so gets the properties back on the tax roll and reduces the county’s costs for maintenance like plowing and grading.

On the block at a hearing later this month will be Emerson Road by Uniontown, T.W. Walters Road in Colfax and a piece of land by the Winona West Road at Winona.

Emerson Road is a quarter mile section of road with one home that loops at the junction of Highways 195 and 95 at the Idaho state line south of Uniontown. Barry and Cynthia Holben own the only property served by Emerson Road.

T.W. Walters Road is in north Colfax at the Green Hollow Road intersection. The road runs behind the implement lot of Jones Truck & Implement.

The third “road” is actually a piece of land acquired as a right-of-way by the county when it re-aligned the Winona West Road.

While the county considers the new abaondonments, officials have yet to decide on two earlier abandonment proposals.

Campbell Road, south of Tekoa, and the Mac Hatley Road, near Ewartsville, were on the list to be abandoned in February 2010, but lawyers for the families who own adjacent land brought into question the legality of abandoning roads with bridges.

The residents’ attorney argued state law does not allow public agencies to vacate roads that abut fresh water unless it is done to establish a marina or for industrial development.

Commissioner Greg Partch Monday said Storey had yet to bring those abandonment proposals roads back to commissioners for consideration. Storey said that decision is now in the hands of commissioners.

Hearings on the Emerson, T.W. Walter and Winona-West abandonments will be during the county commissioners’ regular meeting Aug. 29 at 11 a.m.