World Photo by Lou Sennick Sitkum Lane remained closed a few miles past Sitkum on Saturday afternoon after a landslide blocked the road earlier in the week. In three weeks, the Coos County Road Department will lay off 22 employees. The department’s staff has asked the Coos County commissioners to take a second look at the decision.

Coos County Road Department employees are calling for an independent review of the Board of Commissioners approved plan to reorganize the department.

Employees contend the department won’t meet its obligations once the county cuts 22 of its employees this month. The plan would have the county spend less on personnel and more on materials.

“We insist on professional, qualified people and/or  a committee to come up with the best direction for the road department and the citizens of Coos County,” 13-year  maintenance worker Adam Wideman said.

Wideman, who is also the department union leader, found out Wednesday he will be laid off Jan. 20.

Layoffs are not the only personnel change. Commissioner and interim roadmaster Kevin Stufflebean said he will moving forward today on hiring a roadmaster, with plans to offer the top candidate a job today.

The department’s personnel budget this year is $2.8 million, while money budgeted by asphalt comes in at almost $164,000, the supplies budget is almost $600,000. Money funding equipment purchases is proposed at $23,000.

Stufflebean agrees that a review should be done of the entire department in restructuring the county’s transportation plan, but the conclusions would be too late to save the department enough money. 

He explained that in November, long-term budget figures showed that if personnel costs were maintained through the end of the four-year federal payments more drastic cuts would be in store. Stufflebean decided to cut back now rather than later, a move which he said would save jobs.

“We opted to take timber payments and invest them in infrastructure versus in staffing we can’t maintain,” Stufflebean said.

Wideman said he doubts Stufflebean’s reasons are truly the root of the decision.

“It’s not about money,” Wideman said. “It’s about his desire to spend money on equipment and asphalt — not what is best for the general public.”

He also contends the commissioner isn’t qualified to make such drastic decisions.

“Kevin Stufflebean has no experience except what he has learned on the job,” Wideman said. “He keeps saying he will hire a roadmaster and he never does.”

Workers also counter Stufflebean’s assertion that buying new equipment will cut down significantly on maintenance costs. They contend even new equipment needs maintenance.

Both Stufflebean and Commissioner Nikki Whitty say the book isn’t closed on the what equipment purchases will be made. Stufflebean said on the top of the list is a crack sealer and possibly a used paint truck and culvert cleaner.

Workers also question how the smaller crew will be able to keep up with basic maintenance, such as brush cutting, line painting and patching potholes, let alone be able to do enough work to justify more spending on asphalt and other materials.

“The fact of the matter is we are in a desperate economy, the road system is in terrible shape and we are hardly able to keep up with it now,” Wideman said. “We were told they had done an analysis and that they could handle emergencies. We would like to see a copy.”

No actual analysis exists on paper, but that department managers looked at streamlining jobs, Stufflebean said. He added that not all laid-off employees worked on the roads: one is a clerical position, three mainly work in the shop and three are in the rock crushing crew.

Stufflebean said some aspects of the department’s job are done inefficiently. For example, he said some of the rock used on roads starts at the county pit where it is crushed, then it is hauled to a storage yard and finally hauled to the work site. Rather then trucking some rock 75 miles round trip, the department could buy rock cheaper from sources closer to where the work is being done. Shifting sources of rock enables the crew to employ fewer workers at the rock pit.

“It’s not in the county’s best interest  to handle rock three times,” Stufflebean said.

Instead of having managerial staff in the office, he said they will be put to work in the field, picking up some of the jobs done by soon-to-be former employees. Stufflebean said between busy seasons, the department would employee full-time workers in what he calls “busy work,” such as going out inspecting roads. Those duties will fall to others in the new plan and department managers can decide to hire seasonal workers if needed. The money saved in that decision will go to buying material.

“If you don’t have the materials to maintain roads, then we really don’t have a reason to have a road department,” Stufflebean said.