Introduction
The Otsego County Road Commission is comprised of thirty-two full-time employees and a five member Board of Commissioners. The Commissioners are appointed for six-year terms with terms being staggered to allow for an appointment every two years. The benefits and salaries of the commissioners are governed by the Board of County Commissioners. The current Board consists of:
Chairman: Troy Huff
Vice Chairman: Kathy Heinz
Member: Michael Dipzinski
Member: Luke Gordon
Member: Thomas Wagar
The Board meets on every second Thursday of every month at 9:00 a.m. Notices changing meeting times will be posted on our Home page. Special meetings are occasionally held at other times as needed.
Funding
The question that gets asked most at the Road Commission is: I pay all these property taxes, why can’t I get my road fixed? Actually, to the surprise of most people, we do not receive any property tax. Not directly anyway. Some property tax does get back to the roads in the form of township participation on Local Road upgrades. No property tax comes to us for maintenance of the roads. On the average, 79% of your property tax goes to our education system, 18% goes to the County (Not the Road Commission) and 3% goes to the township. A ten (10) year road millage in Otsego County was voted on and approved by the voters in 2023.
Public Act 51 of 1951 set up the funding for State Trunklines, County Road Commissions, cities and villages. This act has been modified 63 times in the past 46 years and is quite complex, but basically this is how it works. When you buy a gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel in Michigan, you are paying approximately 31 cents State tax. This breaks down to 12 or 13 cents State Sales Tax (6% of the price) and 19 cents State Highway Tax. This State Highway Tax and the cost of license plates make up most of the Michigan Transportation Fund (MTF). Sixteen percent off the top of these MTF monies goes to various State needs such as; Comprehensive Transportation, The Secretary of State, DNR and other administrative costs. Of the remaining monies, 21.8% goes to cities and villages, 39.1% goes to the State Trunkline Fund and 39.1% goes to the County Road Commissions. This money goes to each county road commission based on where vehicles are registered, population and miles of roads in the county. Of the Road Commissions’ share, 1% is held back as Snow Funds and distributed in December of each year to Counties that averaged over 80 inches of snow in a 10 year period. No sales tax goes to roads.
We received $3,606,320 of MTF funds in 2012, $3,566,129 of MTF funds in 2011, and $3,505,681 of MTF funds in 2010. We also received $1,007,021 from the townships as matching money for construction of Local roads in 2012, $466,830 in township funding in 2011, and $151,800 in township funding in 2010. Other revenues are generated each year by interest on deposits, sale of surplus equipment, permits, mineral leases and gas wells. The gas wells are from property that we own in deed (like gravel pits) and our garage land.
In addition to the State tax, there is a Federal Tax in the amount of 18.3 cents a gallon. Some of this money does get back to our County. This money is administered by the Michigan Department of Transportation and can have several forms or categories. You may have heard of MAP-21, “Category A”, “Category D”, or STP funds. Most of these funds are restrictive, must be applied for and give us 77% to 80% matching money. Some roads we have used Federal Money on in recent years are Poquette Road, Mancelona Road, Krys Road, McCoy Road, and Milbocker Road. Federal Money goes directly to a contractor and is not a part of our cash revenues.
Each year, road commission representatives perform a number of activities to maintain and improve the public road system. This requires a capable fleet of equipment and challenges to our annual budget. Today’s cost of a new tandem axle road commission plow truck with a front and wing plow is around $240,000. In an average winter, we place over 5,000 tons of salt on county roads and 9,000 tons on state highways. Our winter sand usage is around 12,000 cyds for both the county and state highway system. The cost to prepare a sandy gravel road for paving is approximately $75,000 per mile. The cost to prep and chip seal an existing paved road is around $56,000 per mile. The cost to prep and overlay an existing paved road with hot mix asphalt is approximately $85,000 per mile.
County vs. Platted vs. Private
Prior to 1932 all County roads were taken care of by each respective Township. In 1931 Public Act No. 130 was passed and was called the Township Road Relief Act. It is now referred to as the McNitt Act. This act required the Counties to set up a Road Commission for the whole County and to take over jurisdiction of 20% of the townships’ roads each year, 1932 through 1936. These roads were certified with the State of Michigan and became the base of each Road Commission’s network of roads. There were two types of roads that were not certified by the Road Commission during these years: Private roads and Platted roads that only existed on paper. Private roads are any roads that have ownership of the right-of-way. There are still many platted roads in the county that have never been developed. They have been dedicated for the use of the public by some supervisor’s plat but are no longer marked and in many cases are wooded over. The adjoining property owners on these roads can get them abandoned in Circuit Court or they could be improved and made into County maintained roads, but most of them just lay forgotten.
The Road Commission does not have jurisdiction over Gaylord and Vanderbilt streets, and these articles will not address them. Act 51 of 1951 established the funding of the State Road systems and also qualified Primary and Local County Roads. Primary Roads are the main “farm to market” roads in the County. Some Primary roads in Otsego County are Old 27, McCoy Road, Mancelona Road and Dickerson Road. Local roads basically serve the landowners in a township. They are often gravel roads and sometimes barely navigable trail roads. Most Primary and Local roads are maintained year round by the Road Commission. We have 175 miles of seasonal roads that are not maintained in the winter but are open for snowmobilers and skiers. These roads either do not have any houses on them or are too narrow for our trucks to plow.
The Road Commission’s primary concern is to keep up the existing roads, the maintenance of which takes up the major part of our budget. The Road Commission will only take over a new section of road when we are given the right-of-way (80′ width) and when it has been brought up to our specifications (paved) by someone other than the Road Commission. Construction on a county road (for example: improving a trail road to a wide, paved road) by law requires us to get 50% of the funds from an outside source. Some counties have carried this on to 100%. At this time Otsego County requires 75% of construction to be paid by others. Anyone can enter into agreement with us for construction but usually it is the townships.
We have had many people stop in who were led to believe the County would take care of their road and after the first snowfall find out that it was not a County Road, too narrow to be plowed, or is classified as seasonal. If you are contemplating buying a home or building on a County Road, feel free to stop in and inquire as to the status of your road.
The Right-Of-Way
Road right-of-way under the jurisdiction of the Road Commission varies in width, generally from 66 to 80 feet depending on the type of road and use at the time. When you consider twenty to twenty-four feet of pavement, six to eight feet of shoulder on each side and eight to ten feet of ditch on each side, the sixty-six foot width is used up in a hurry.
When the Road Commission enters into a township agreement to upgrade a particular road, the existing right-of-way may not be adequate to complete the proposed improvements. In this case, our representatives will approach property owners and ask their consideration to grant out office temporary grading permit. This permit will allow the Road Commission to grade the side slopes outside the existing right-of-way to meet the new road improvements. This will eliminate the need for guardrail. Our temporary grading permit will expire upon completion of the project. On rare occasions, our office may need a permanent easement from a property owner to complete a road upgrade. A fair and thorough negotiation with the property owners will be performed.
If the developer of a subdivision wants us to take over the maintenance of the new roads, he must first bring them up to County Road specifications, and then we will certify them. Generally, there must be an eighty foot wide right-of-way, the road must be graveled and then paved. If you can imagine what it would be like if all the roads in Michaywe were given to us as sand trails, then you can see the need for specifications like this.
Land owners sometimes think they own property right up to the edge of the gravel. This is not always so. Some get upset when we grade the shoulders of the roads that they have planted grass on and are mowing. There is a reason for grading the shoulders. Usually it is done to fill a drop-off, to widen the road a little, to reinstate the ditch for proper drainage or to pull in gravel to the center that has washed off the road. Even more abstract is when we scrape off a few inches so the shoulders can freeze up. Unfrozen shoulders can mean disaster if our plow digs in and changes the direction of the truck.
Even though we have some control over the right-of-way, we are not a law enforcement agency. We get complaints that vehicles are going too fast, too loud, too early in the morning, etc. If you have a problem of this nature then please call the Sheriff’s Department or the State Police.
Gravel Roads
For those of you living on a gravel road, there is no immediate relief. In the summer it is bumpy and dusty, in the winter it is slippery and the last to be plowed, and in the spring it can be muddy. Sound familiar? A solution, of course, is pavement but even that has its drawbacks as it tends to increase the amount of traffic on the road as well as speeds.
Smoothing out bumpy roads requires grading with a blade truck or a motor grader. This grading is usually done after a rain because then the road is soft enough for us to smooth it out. When dry, the clay becomes compacted and we are not able to cut down into the hard surface and any that is removed will not stick in the holes. Sometimes in the spring this clay makes the roads slippery. It is a hard job to get the right balance of clay, stone and sand on a gravel road. Too little clay and the road will quickly develop sand holes and soft spots, too much clay and the road is slippery every time it rains. Heavily traveled roads are difficult to maintain. Generally a gravel road holds up pretty good with up to 100 cars per day, more cars than that and we have problems.
Potholes in gravel roads can be graded out if minor, but the larger ones must have gravel put in them. We spend a good share of the spring, summer and fall hauling gravel from our pits to patch gravel roads. If temporary truck traffic tears a road up, the truckers will frequently have the road repaired if we ask them to.
We typically spread 250,000 gallons of brine on gravel roads in a year. This has two purposes; it helps to hold the surface together and, of course, reduces the dust. We get our brine from a commercial supplier who spreads it at our direction. A Road Commission is not required to brine roads, but is done as a service to the citizens. We generally do not brine where there are no homes. We try to respond to calls on dusty roads, but with all the miles of gravel roads and the cost it is hard to do as good a job as we would like to do. In some counties the townships bear the entire cost of brining the roads, but so far the Road Commission has covered this cost in Otsego County.
Snowplowing
Otsego County receives, on average, 150 inches of snow in a winter. This snow compounded by the drifting that we get, makes a job of keeping roads open all winter. We have twelve men assigned to snowplow routes on county roads, plus four on I-75 and M-32 and two night men. Generally we don’t like to work the day shift over eight to ten hours as it is more dangerous plowing at night, and we want them rested for the next morning. However, they sometimes work seven days a week during the winter.
The main roads (I-75, M-32, Old 27, McCoy Road, etc.) are plowed first and then they go on their routes. Within each route the “more main” routes are plowed first. Unfortunately, someone must be first and someone must be last and, depending on where you live, it may be late in the day before your road is plowed. If the person on your route gets stuck or has a breakdown it may be later than usual. After a storm we try to open a narrow path down all roads the first day and widen them out the second day. If another storm hits the second day, we start over and it could be several days before all the roads are widened out. Contrary to popular opinion, we can not lift the plow at driveways, swerve away from driveways or put all the snow across the road from driveways. The worst case is when you are unable to plow or snow blow your own drive and our truck fills it just after your plow man has left. You may even have more of a problem than your neighbor depending on how the snow drifts at your driveway.
Our drivers plow very close to mailboxes day after day and rarely hit one. If we do hit one, we will replace it with a common mailbox, not a fancy one. If the snow coming off the plow knocks your mailbox off, you are liable for that. During a snow storm, please wait to bring your garbage to the shoulder of the road if possible. The Road Commission needs room to groom. The Road Commission is not liable for waste pickup. We cannot plow any private roads or driveways.
We do not necessarily plow all County roads. Some are too narrow, too steep or don’t have a place to turn around. In most cases school buses will only go on plowed county roads, so check with us before you buy or build a house if you are not sure. We also do not plow roads that no one lives on.
When County trucks are working on the road, they are exempt from the motor vehicle code. This allows them to back up in the roads, plow intersections, drive on the shoulder, etc. When our trucks are loaded full of snow, it is sometimes hard for them to see a small car. For this reason, you should try to stay clear of County trucks as they may not do what you expect. Also, our trucks are not capable of plowing at 70 MPH as we are sometimes accused, more like 35 – 40 MPH. With all the snow flying it appears the truck is going faster. It is important for them to go relatively fast to get the snow thrown back far enough so a high bank doesn’t form. We have to push back high banks with a grader and wing plow or a snow blower and that is very time consuming.
One last thing, if you have an emergency and need to get plowed out in a hurry call the Sheriff’s Department or the State Police. They will get in contact with us and get you out.
Liability
These days everyone is touched by liability concerns. We all pay extra for every product we buy to cover liability costs. Your Road Commission is not exempt from our legal system. Millions of potential road dollars are instead spent each year on defense of cases or awards of others. The Otsego County Road Commission has saved a lot of money by joining other Road Commissions in a pool and become self-insured.
Property damage is an area of concern. If you apply for a permit to put some structure, like a sign, in the right-of-way you must assume the responsibility for any damage to that sign. If it is damaged by snow thrown off our plows, etc. you must pay for the repairs. If we damage something off the right-of-way, like your garage door, we will pay to repair it. If a stone comes off our sander or is kicked up from the road and breaks your windshield, under the no fault laws of Michigan, each driver covers his own losses. If we cause some damage through neglect, then we will be liable. However, working in the roadway is a necessary part of our job and most minor vehicle damage is not done by neglect. Each problem has its own circumstances, so it is always best to come in and fill out an accident report form to send to our insurance people.
Speed Limits in Otsego County
Speed limits are a tough subject. Sometimes it appears that a good share of drivers would like to drive 70 MPH past everybody else’s house and have everyone drive 25 MPH past theirs! Michigan’s Basic Speed Law takes precedence over all other speed laws and reads as follows: “Any person driving a vehicle on a highway shall drive the same at a careful and prudent speed not greater than nor less than is reasonable and proper, having due regard to the traffic, surface and width of the highway and any other existing conditions, and no person shall drive any vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than will permit him/her to bring it to a stop within the assured clear distance ahead”.
The maximum speed limit on County Roads in Michigan is 55 MPH and the speed limit is set at 25 MPH in business and platted residential areas. Between 25 MPH and 55 MPH exists an area described as “modified” or “permissive” speed zones. It is this area that is of concern to most people. The State Legislature has given authority for regulation of speeds on county roads to the County Road Commission and the Michigan State Police. Both the State Police and the Road Commission must agree and sign the control order before a speed limit can be enforced. No modified speed limit ticket is valid without a traffic control order to back it up.
Speed limit change requests come through the township the road is in. This creates awareness at the township level and gives the township a chance to get public input. When we get the request from the township, we contact the Safety and Traffic Officer with the State Police in Traverse City. He/she will perform a traffic study of the highway to determine if a change in the speed limit is necessary. There are many guidelines that are used in determining appropriate speeds. Setting realistic speed zones is an important factor for safe highways. Past history has shown that drivers will ignore unrealistic speed limits, so police strive for the “85 percentile speed”. This is the speed at or below which 85% of the observed traffic is moving. The speed limits are generally established within seven MPH either way of this 85th percentile speed. The 15% of drivers going over this limit are the ones that need to slow down or risk getting a ticket.
“No Parking” zones are set by a similar procedure as speed zones. A control order for the area to be marked “No Parking” must be approved by both the State Police and the Road Commission to be enforced. Otsego County Road Commission no longer will put up or replace “Children at Play” signs on our roads. Besides not being legal signs, we feel they give a false sense of security to parents.
