Commissioners Reject Another Request To Abandon Road
Roosevelt County commissioners decided against a second request to abandon County Road 2058 during their meeting on Tuesday, May 9.
The request was made by landowner Lynn Labatte for property near Culbertson.
The motion to grant the request failed by a 2-1 vote. Commissioner Robert Toavs voted in favor of abandoning the road. Toavs said he has gone back and forth on the issue about a hundred times. “Every road is different in itself,” Toavs said. “I don’t know.”
Commissioner Gordon Oelkers said that his has kept his position against the request. He said that roads change and development changes.
During a previous meeting, Oelkers said that he was advised by a commissioner from a different county not to abandon roads because there might be a need in the future.
Members of the Labatte family argued that the county didn’t build the road and no one uses it but them. They said that under state law, the county must purchase a right of way. The county must also prove that the road is maintained by the county, according to the Labattes.
After the votes were cast, property owner Lynn Labatte asked commissioner Gary Macdonald what changed his mind.
“I will never vote to abandon a county road,” Macdonald answered.
Also during the meeting, commissioners approved a request from the fair to purchase push-button handicap doors.
Commissioners also approved a request from DES to purchase Zoom meeting platform and a camera/ speaker system.
The work plan from the DUI task force was approved for 2023-2024.
Re-hired were Tracie Smith to the Extension office and Jerri Grimsrud for the Justice of the Peace office in Wolf Point.
Pay raises were approved for detention center employee Gunner Greene, road department employee Jeff Adkins, aging services employee Edith YellowRobe, aging services employee Alyssa Toavs, clerk and recorder employee Janice Wemmer- Kegley and clerk and recorder employee Vicky Boysun.
