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COMMISSIONERS COURT
Revised funding approved for VFDs
Colorado County Commissioners approved the establishment of new speed limits for eight different county roads at their first commissioners court meeting on March 10.
The approval comes after the agenda item was initially introduced on the Feb. 24 agenda as a discussion item, but was approved in the most recent meeting after a public hearing was held.
One Colorado County resident spoke to commissioners during the public hearing and urged that the speed limit for Ehlinger Road, located in Precinct No. 3 be put down to 35 miles per hour instead of the proposed 45 miles per hour on the budget.
He said traffic was bad on Ehlinger Road and wanted to see the speed limit on the road changed to 35 mph because of fatality accidents on that road.
Colorado County Judge Ty Prause ensured that the plea didn’t fall on deaf ears but explained to the resident that the agenda item had the proposed speed limit of 45 and could not be changed during the meeting but at a later time if need be.
Precinct No. 3 Commissioner Keith Neuendorff recognized that the need for a speed limit change on Ehlinger Rd. was crucial, having gotten “quite a few calls” to drop the speed limit. He plans to keep an eye on how much the proposed speed limit change will help the activity on that road and if need be, can always be changed in the future.
“I did put it down to 45 because I did have quite a few calls to drop the speed limit,” said Neuendorff. “We have a road by Zimmerscheidt at approximately the same as Ellinger road, and it’s at 45 also. So that’s why we said at 45 to kind of keep them universal in that area. If something goes down, it can always be changed in the future. I’ll keep an eye on it. They’ve been keeping an eye on Zimmerscheidt pretty regularly here lately. We have the same situation, they’re flying wide open about 60, 70, miles per hour. They’re not slowing down.”
Precinct No. 2 Commissioner Ryan Brandt says he keeps a personal record when somebody calls complaining about the speed from traffic to stay on top of what should be the correct speed limit changes and not just “throw down a random number.”
“When local residents have too many concerns, then it becomes more of a serious issue,” said Brandt. “I’ve had more than one complaint concern. That’s why we’re following through with this, without having to do a speed study, we can do 40 miles an hour on the paved roads. It seems that when people are driving in that 40-milean- hour speed range and you meet someone on that paved road, there’s much less of a tendency to bail off into the right of way or into the ditch. When you’re slowing down, you can pass each other, at least in precinct two, you can stay on our roads.”
Brandt adds that because of the need for speed for some drivers due to the current speed limit, some tend to take the shoulders to avoid traffic or get to their destination faster which in turn “deteriorates the roads.” He urges that if they need to speed somewhere, just “leave early.”
“Our roads are 20, 21, 22 feet wide, and when you stay on the road, the shoulders don’t degrade. But when somebody’s going 60 miles an hour, and they just bail off into the ditch and they ride the shoulder. It’s deteriorating our shoulders, and that’s an expensive fix, so slow down. It comes to that, if you have got to drive 60, 70 miles an hour, leave early. That’s pretty much it in a nutshel l, you know. And watch out for people that are walking. Watch out for agriculture equipment and just mind your speed a little bit better. Everybody would appreciate it.”
The new, improved and approved speed limits for county roads go as follows:
• County Rd 270 from State Highway 155, West to end of pavement - 40 MPH. County Rd 210 entire length of road - 40 MPH.
• County Rd 211 entire length of road - 40 MPH.
• County Rd 213 entire length of road - 40 MPH.
• County Rd 260 from CR270, south to county line - 35 MPH
• County Rd 260 from State Highway 155, west to county line - 35 MPH.
• Blacksmith Ln. entire length of road - 35 MPH.
• Precinct No. 3: Ehlinger Rd. from FM 1291 to Brushy Rd - 45 MPH.
Additionally, commissioners voted to approve an agenda item revising the amounts of funding for the Colorado County Volunteer Fire Departments based on the data submitted for 2024.
According to Colorado County Auditor Michelle Lowrance, she went through and recalculated the call volumes and reallocated the numbers. She urges that the county implement a more consistent format after talking to fire departments and not just relying on estimates for the future.
“I got all the information from the fire departments. I went through and recalculated,” said Lowrance. “I’ve talked to some of the fire departments on not just having estimates and not just marking down the number. I’ll also to be able to get the dispatch reports from the sheriff’s office so that we can reconcile the fire department calls to the dispatch reports. There’s some work to be done. It’s going to continue like this, to get it consistent and get everybody reporting on the same basis, to make sure that all of the data is comparable.”
Neuendorff, who worked with Lowrance to help her understand the fire codes, says that the county is looking to come up with a generalized form, so they are able to look at the exact same thing for every department because up until now, “every department had a different record keeping” method.
“Some departments had pictures or text on their phones,” said Neuendorff. “It was just a mess, and I could understand why she (Lowrance) was having trouble, a rough time trying to figure it out. We might come up with a generalized form that you can understand that you see, ‘hey, this is a call that was paged out by the sheriff’s office’ and not have it be, ‘well, we went to service this time.’ You have got a location here, and it has all the different times. It had to be ciphered out to make sure it was correct.”
The next Colorado County Commissioners court meeting will be held on Monday, March 24.
“When local residents have too many concerns, then it becomes more of a serious issue. I’ve had more than one complaint concern.”
Precinct No. 2 Commissioner Ryan Brandt on speed limits
