Mark Sharpton: Update

This is a holiday weekend. I hope you can find time to celebrate Easter with your family and friends.

The weather this week has been very confounding. Snow and eighties in the same week is crazy. The District 1 workers have been out grading roads and adding gravel to some. We have also been removing trees from the right-of-way out in the Cashion area for the last few weeks. We have been hauling gravel into and out of the District 1 yard. The rock quarry has been out of road rock because of equipment breakdown, so we have been bringing in crusher run. Crusher run is not as clean as road rock but it works almost as well.

We have had two crews out filling potholes trying to catch up from the winter road curse. We utilized the cold, snowy day to cut some areas in asphalt  that need to be excavated and a new base put in place. We have been transitioning the Coltrane project from purchasing right-of-way to the utilities moving stage. There are still some right-of-way acquisitions being done but most are moving into the legal arena. The project is advancing, but I, like you, would like to see it move much faster with less bureaucratic nonsense. Logan County’s engineer is currently working with the Board of Commissioners in updating the five-year plan that is submitted to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. On all projects in the county, the wheels are always moving out of sight of the motoring public. Some of the simplest roads and bridges constructed literally take years of government red tape to grow from a need to a finished product. A lot of the time, people look at road and bridge construction like it is something done on a whim by the entity. It entails many months and often years of work being done by dozens of people before construction actually begins. Perhaps I can expand into more detail in a future update.

It is my honor to represent Logan County. Always call or email about concerns you may have. If I do not know the answer, we will try to find out together.