Scott County ready to finish ice storm cleanup

BENTON, Mo. -- With the completion of this year's blacktopping program, Scott County can get back to cleaning up the mess left by the January ice storm.

"We have 58 trees identified by FEMA that need to be cut down and removed," Presiding Commissioner Jamie Burger said during the regular County Commission meeting Tuesday.

"The next two weeks we will aggressively attack those trees," Commissioner Donnie Kiefer said.

In addition to taking down the damaged trees, crews will clean up any remaining debris from the ice storm, he said.

Cleanup efforts were put on hold over the summer so county road and bridge crews could use the warm weather to lay blacktop.

The county's road and bridge department crews finished laying blacktop overlays Thursday, Kiefer said.

"So that's going to allow us to do some other things," he said.

This year's county blacktopping program included a total of a little over 17 miles of blacktop overlays.

"We balanced that all over the county," Burger said. "I hope people saw improvement in their area. Maybe not on the initial road in front of their home but hopefully their neighboring roads saw improvements."

In previous years, the most the county has been able to do is about 10 miles, according to Burger.

Equipment purchased in recent years, such as a hot mix paver and roller, have enabled the county to do more, Burger said.

"That hot mix paver has been a blessing," he said. "And it will make our overlays last longer" than cold mix blacktop laid by the county in previous years.

"All the equipment was working and we had beautiful weather to be able to work," Commissioner Dennis Ziegenhorn said.

Pertinent address:

131 S. Winchester St., Benton, Mo.