SWEETWATER COUNTY – Whether it is maintenance or construction of new roads, they are always an important topic. On Tuesday, the Sweetwater County Commissioners were again discussing roads, this time speed limits on county roads.

Sweetwater County Public Works Director John Radosevich spoke to the commission about speed limits on county roads. In July of 2011, Wyoming passed a state statute about minimum and maximum speeds but also required counties to look at their individual roads.

Radosevich discussed the roads that had speed limits set before the statute was passed. They are all right if they had a study done on them, but if not, counties would be required to do so to set speed limits.

Sweetwater County is one of the highest counties when it comes to miles of roadways. Radosevich started investigating companies, then sent out the equivalent to the bid process. He said it was based on rates and materials instead of the usual process because roads vary.

Sweetwater County Commission Chairman Wally Johnson asked if the work could be done in-house. Earlier, Radosevich told the commissioners he did have it in his budget. He told Johnson there was not enough time to do it in-house, and he had $150,000 budgeted for the project.

Johnson asked if they were required by law to do it. Radosevich said they were.

“Another unfunded mandate from the state,” Commissioner John Kolb said.

In the discussion, Kolb said he understood they were doing this to lower speed limits for safety sake but questioned when they were going to stop having engineers hire other engineers and hire someone to do it.

The request passed by a 3-2 vote. Commissioners Gary Bailiff, Reid West and Don Van Matre voted for it. Kolb and Johnson voted against the request. Johnson said he disagreed with spending that amount of money on the project.