Illmo Special Road District faces challenges

~ District deflects effort to put it under control of county government.

A year ago, the Illmo Special Road District was recovering from an attempt to fold it into the Scott County Highway Department.

Before the April municipal election in 2005, a small band of critics had gotten 75 signatures on a petition demanding the end of the district -- enough to put the question on the ballot.

For months the sides battled through fliers in the media. The critics claimed the road district was being mismanaged by the commissioners at the time, Bob Keesee, Bill Zimmerman and Dale Schlosser.

When voting day came, residents of the district voted overwhelmingly -- 243 to 161 -- to keep the district out of county hands. They also voted Zimmerman off the board, replacing him with Scott City resident Terry Gettings.

Since that time things have been quiet in the road district. A year has passed, along with a paving season. But thanks to high oil prices, it looks as if commissioners won't be able to fulfill their promise to pave all the roughly six remaining miles of gravel road in the district within five years.

"We won't be able to get everything blacktopped," said presiding commissioner Bob Keesee, who won re-election this year without an opponent. "Expenses are pushing us back. Now we're going to try over a six-year period."

The Illmo Special maintains 29 miles of road stretching from the Scott County border on its north, nearly all the way to Commerce on the south, to the Mississippi River on the east and to Interstate 55 on the west.

The district is one of two special road districts in the county, according to the Scott County Highway Department. These districts operate independently of the county department.

Residents in Scott City and in the road district area outside city limits pay $0.3096 per $100 assessed valuation in property taxes to the district. This year the tax has provided the Illmo Special with a budget of about $125,000, said Keesee.

Out of that total, about $30,000 goes to pay a full-time employee, he said. Another large expense is maintaining the roads that are already paved, some of which are developing cracks and potholes, Keesee said.

That leaves little for paving, especially with costs going up.

The Illmo Special contracts its blacktopping with Asa Asphalt Inc. in Advance. Keesee said the district doesn't have the personnel or equipment to do its own paving.

According to Asa, prices for their jobs are already 25 percent higher than they were at this time last year. Increased costs for oil products, including asphalt and fuel to run trucks, has driven up operating expenses -- a cost that's passed on to consumers like the Illmo Special.

An unexpected rise in costs has occurred with damaged caution signs along ditches, said Keesee. In the past year the district has placed signs along the sides of roads where ditch drop-offs are dangerous. Many of those signs have been knocked down by farmers pulling equipment behind tractors, he said.

This fall Illmo Special hopes to pave large portions of Roth Drive, Keesee said. But that's just a small portion of the roads that are still unpaved.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182