SWEETWATER COUNTY –– The Sweetwater County commissioners approved a resolution to lower the speed limits on unpaved, unmarked county roads Tuesday morning, though the commissioners admit people will drive as fast as they please on the roads.
“I’ll be the first one speeding on it and I’ll make the motion,” Commissioner Mary Thoman said when making the motion to approve the resolution.
The commissioners approved a resolution that decreases the speed limit on unpaved county roads not marked by speed limit signs, setting the speed limits to 45 mph, from a maximum of 55 mph. The county has approximately 1,200 miles of county road, along with another 200 miles of U.S. Forest Service roads it maintains. Gene Legerski, the county’s public works director, estimates around 600 miles of those roads are unpaved and unsigned county roads.
“There seems to be a misnomer that these are going to be patrolled roads and they’re going to be hard set, and it’s just certainly not the case,” Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners Chairman Keaton West said. “People are going to drive whatever they want anyway, but we have to have a standard and it’s no different than those paved roads or city streets or whatever the case is.”
Legerski said the legislature allows the county commissioners to set a speed limit on the roads between 35-55 mph. He said a bill was passed in 2011 that broke down different speed limits on different types of roads throughout the state. Local governments wanting to deviate from that list had to conduct speed studies on the roads. He said there was a section that allowed commissioners to change speed limits for emergency situations or for a specific amount of time. Legerski said the Wyoming Legislature attempted to combine everything into a single bill during the 2025 session.
Legerski reiterated that the resolution only applies to unpaved roads without signage. Any road with a posted speed limit sign is one where the county went through the proper procedures to set the speed limit.
“We haven’t went out in the middle of the Red Desert, done a speed study, done a design study on it – the speed limit is 55 mph,” Legerski said.
He said when the initial bill passed in 2011, the speed limit maximum was 45 mph until the third reading, when it was increased to 55 mph, saying he doesn’t know why that change occurred. Legerski said some unpaved county roads are not designed. He said some of the roads were trails the county bladed in an attempt to make them the best roads they could. As such, 55 mph is too fast for those roads.
“The 45-mph speed limit is a better solution for those roads,” he said.
He admits the roads won’t be patrolled and people driving along the routes will drive as fast as they please while traveling along them. However, he believes the resolution provides some relief by communicating that while people will drive along them as fast as they want, they should be traveled at 45 mph.
Legerski said County Road 15 is a perfect example of a road that could have a 55-mph limit enacted on it, saying some stretches could allow someone to travel 65 mph outside of a few corners. Other segments of the road, such as when someone turns east after 15 Mile Knoll, Legerski said the road becomes something that’s likely best traveled at 35 mph.
“Forty-five on a side-by-side you could probably get away with, 45 on a one-ton pickup – you’re probably going to hurt your kidneys,” Legerski said.
Legerski said there is a process for county residents to initiate to talk about a speed limit on a county road, though no one has come in to address a road in the Red Desert.
Prior to the approval, the commissioners approved an amendment to the eighth Whereas paragraph made by Commissioner Island Richards to replace what he claimed was negative language in the paragraph.
Other Business
The discussion about Sweetwater County Fire District No. 1’s fire rates was postponed to the May 6 meeting as Scott Kitchner, the fire chief for the district, was ill and unable to attend Tuesday’s meeting.
