There’s a possibility the contracts won’t be renewed for next season, Forest Service engineers told a roomful of county officials and others at the meeting, even though the contracts can be extended for up to three years.

After the meeting, Butts told The Challis Messenger he still wasn’t satisfied and that the commissioners are considering accepting a Forest Service offer for the county to take over maintenance of some forest roads, providing the agency has the funding. If the county road crew can’t handle all of the extra work, the commissioners might hire local contractors to do some of it, Butts added.

The agency could negotiate a lump sum rate or a per mile cost for the county to grade roads, Forest Engineer Jake Strohmeyer said.

“Give Custer County the money and make us accountable,” Butts said. That way we know the money is there and the work gets done.”

That’s doable, but the two governments would first have to sign a road maintenance agreement, said Strohmeyer.

Specs

Why didn’t the non-local contractors follow the Forest Service’s performance specifications, County Road and Bridge Supervisor Jim Sugden asked, and did the agency pay them for the sub-par work?

The contractors did the best they could, starting the work under less than ideal conditions in September, Strohmeyer said. Ideally, they would have started in the spring instead of fall just before snow season.

“As far as I know, they followed the specs,” Strohmeyer said, adding that engineering technician Pete Schuldt did spot inspections of the work.

The Forest Service reworked some problem road sections, Schuldt said, and had issues with one contractor in particular. The contractors didn’t have reliable water sources everywhere they graded roads. They made a good faith effort, but some Forest Service roads are “boney” and the contractors had to scrounge for supplies of dirt. Not all was their fault.

For example, the Loon Creek Road has a lot of bedrock and is tough to grade smoothly, Strohmeyer said. There’s no way a road grader can avoid leaving some rocks larger than two inches. “It’s not going to happen.”

If the specs can’t be followed, the Forest Service should rewrite them, the commissioners suggested.

That would be difficult because there’s a wide variety of roads across the forest, Strohmeyer said, and the agency can’t write specifics for each one. Strohmeyer assumed the contractors would cover that by looking at the roads and factor difficult conditions into their bids.

The commissioners heard a rumor the Forest Service awarded the bid to the Oregon contractor because Strohmeyer was his friend, Butts said.

“No, I’ve never met him,” Strohmeyer said, adding he’d hoped the contracts would go to locals more familiar with the roads. Also, a Forest Service employee in Idaho Falls awards the contracts.

The Forest Service is bound by its regulations and has to award contracts to companies with proven track records that can do the best job for the lowest price and has to spend money to get the job done before the end of its fiscal year or lose it, Strohmeyer said.

In the past, the agency could advertise in local newspapers for contractors, but now has to put out bids nationwide.

The cheapest contractor still has an obligation to meet the performance specs, Sugden said. “I think you failed.”

“Point taken, Jim. I agree we have to follow the specs,” Strohmeyer said.

Salmon-area contractor Doug Westfall, who is also a member of the Forest Service’s Resource Advisory Committee, said he thought RAC road project funds would be awarded to local contractors.

“I said I cannot guarantee bids would go to local contractors,” Strohmeyer said.

Based on complaints, Butts said he believes the Forest Service would have fined anyone else for the work.

Complaints

A lot of Lemhi County residents complained about work on the north end of the forest, said Lemhi County Road and Bridge Supervisor Kerrie Cheney. “They didn’t do up to par in Lemhi County, either.”

Diamond D Ranch owner Tom Demorest wrote that the Loon Creek Road was worse after grading than if the contractor had left it alone, Sugden noted, adding he’s met with other unhappy citizens and took pictures of problems on the Morgan and Panther creek roads.

Resident Claire Fernandez wondered why the contractor was grading Panther Creek Road during a rainstorm, Sugden said.

Bill Tuggle, the contract mail carrier for the Panther Creek area, said he had flats on his rig and he runs on 10-ply tires. A half dozen others had flats, too, showing the road grader left a lot of big, sharp rocks behind. Whoever inspected the road did a bad job, Tuggle said.

“We drive the [Yankee Fork-Jordan Creek] road daily,” Hecla Mine Manager Brant Tritthart said, “and this was the worst we’ve ever seen it.” Hecla graded to its mine for years and Tritthart believes the Forest Service would have fined the company or ordered it to fix the kind of problems the non-local contractors left behind.

Hecla had to take its own equipment out at its own expense to clear rocks and dirt berms off the road, Tritthart said, so its snowplows wouldn’t be damaged this winter or knock rocks and dirt into the creek.