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COUNTY COMMENT %u2022 February 2025 14will get an answer for you.%u201d I always tried to take calls from the public. They may not always like the answer they got, but many times they thanked me for listening. I always figured that if I didn%u2019t take their call or return their call, the next call was probably going to be to a County Commissioner or to the County Administrator. And I always tried to be fully informed on any request that I had on the County Commission agenda. I never wanted to simply wing it. I would present policy requests or purchase recommendations with both the pros and cons. It gave credibility to the evaluation and deliberation process. And I accepted the reality that I wouldn%u2019t always get my way. As I look forward to filling my new role as your Local Road Engineer, I want to be attentive to the needs of your counties. Those needs might be regional in nature, but nonetheless important. Keep me informed as to what is going on in your county and/or some of your biggest challenges. I may not have all the answers, but I will reach out to find out what other counties are doing to address similar issues.In mid-January, I had an opportunity to meet with Calvin Reed, Secretary, Kansas Department of Transportation. He understands that there are a lot of needs on the local road system. He stressed that he wants to identify gaps in some of what KDOT is already doing and to help put counties in the best position possible in making a strong case for new or increased funding in the next major transportation bill.To make a strong case for selling or defending our needs, we need to have a good quantifiable handle on our most important assets -- our roads and bridges. We have good data on our bridges due to the required bridge inspections that are updated every two (2) years and due to the statewide load rating program, that is nearly completed. We lack, however, a good statewide inventory of pavement conditions and roadway characteristics. A little over four (4) years ago, KDOT asked the Local Road Engineer to develop a simple pavement management system that could be readily implemented by counties that have no system in place. Pavement management systems take work on the front end to get your pavements inventoried, but, once the inventory is set up, it requires spending a couple days or so each year to update the data for the roads that were improved, patched, sealed or overlayed. A few counties have implemented the new system. While I plan to continue to encourage and help more counties implement a pavement management system, I want to work on developing a simple road inventory system. Road inventories are much more static in nature and require very little work to keep up to date. Knowing simple things like surface type, surface thickness, surface width, road classification, traffic counts, shoulder width and right-of-way width goes a long way to creating a good quantifiable assessment of the local road system. Good hard numbers and statistics make stronger selling points compared to general qualitative responses.I will discuss plans and ideas in more detail during some of the upcoming meetings and in future County Comment articles. For now, I look forward to seeing many of you at your upcoming District Meetings. I have been in touch with all the district leaders, and it appears the dates and locations have all been set for 2025. Keep your eyes open for the specific dates, times, and meeting agendas from each of your respective districts.In closing, I appreciate and look forward to this opportunity to serve you and your county in my new role. Don%u2019t hesitate to contact me with questions, suggestions or just to share information on what%u2019s going on in your county. Also, keep me posted if you hear of the passing of any former road and bridge department supervisors and of any retirements or pending departures. I can be reached by email at lutz@kansascounties.org or by phone/text at (316) 322-5165. n