The Custer County Board of Supervisors held their regular meeting on Feb. 14, highlighted by a public hearing regarding the one-and six-year plans for county roads. The plan involves bridges, asphalt development, and drainage and culvert improvements.

Chris Jacobsen, Custer County Highway Superintendent, summarized the projects accomplished in the past year by his staff, which included asphalt development of a 10-mile stretch of road near Victoria Springs SRA; five and a half miles of road near Broken Bow on Ryno Road; and completion of seven bridge maintenance projects.

The projects remaining for Jacobsen’s department include finishing the condition for Sumner, Pressey East, and Weissert Roads, as well as two more miles of asphalt development for Arnold River Road, which is scheduled to resume when the weather improves.

In the coming year, the department additionally plans to resume several asphalt development projects which include nine miles of Arnold River Road, and have added six new projects to the one-year plan: all of which are bridge projects.

A group of citizens from District 6 appeared at the hearing to voice their concerns regarding the current condition of Ryno Road. Since its inundation in 2019, the road has turned from pavement to gravel, and in some places, at certain times of year, mud.

According to a letter written and presented by resident Shirley Trout, the group aims for a total restoration of Ryno Road. “Given today’s type of traffic and given the safety challenges present on Ryno Road, and given the history of trying a number of things that have clearly not worked since the road’s total destruction in 2019, we will not be quiet until the road gets restored to pavement,” said Trout Citizen Jim Jenkins, another resident on the road, described the conditions, stitched from pieces of pavement at various points of wear, gravel, and dirt as confusing, to say the least.

“What is this road considered? Is it paved, is it gravel? How do you refer to our road?,” Jenkins asked as he approached the board. “Two-point-eight miles of that road are effectively paved. I would say the number one problem with that road right now is its variability; what happens is you come shooting out of the most beautiful road in the county, and with no warning at all, the pavement ends and you head into a rough, pot-holed, corrugated stretch of pavement and you dump right into a mud hole. It’s kind of like road schizophrenia.”

Matt Eggelston, a third Ryno Road resident to speak, proposed collaboration and communication between the county supervisors and the group, saying that the group could possibly raise grant money for the restoration project themselves, but they’d need to see themselves in the board’s one- and six-year plans.

“One of the biggest concerns of the group is: are we on the list? And if not, what’s going forth in front of us, and why; help us understand, and we can be supportive when that happens,” Eggleston said.

The board chose to table the plans’ approval until its next meeting, which took place on Tuesday, Feb. 28, along with a public hearing on the matter. The outcome of that meeting was not yet available at press time.