YOUR AD HERE »

Service Area 3, county discussing road maintenance agreement

Aaron Osowski, The Park Record

Service Area 3, which represents the majority of the Silver Creek neighborhood, is responsible for maintaining its own roads. With work needed on of many of those roads, however, its Board of Trustees may be looking to contract with Summit County for services.

Board Chairman Robert Olson said Summit County has put forth a proposal which would have the county providing year-round maintenance of Service Area 3’s roads. Those roads are technically owned by the county, but SA3 is required to maintain them.

"The county has the ability to contract [for road maintenance] in a more general way," Olson said, citing the proposal’s potential cost-effectiveness. "They would do it with the money that comes back from [Service Area 3’s] tax rolls that are normally used for roads."

Talks between the two entities occurred last year as well, when in November Summit County Manager Bob Jasper suggested a potential five-year plan for road maintenance in the Silver Creek area. As some roads lack sidewalks, such as Silver Creek Drive, safety is a big concern for future plans.

Olson is concerned about the county’s additional desire to plow all county roads in the wintertime, saying that Silver Creek is used to its roads being plowed as early as 4 a.m. when it does so itself.

The last message from the county, Olson said, was that they wanted to enter into an agreement by the end of April so they could order machinery by May. The county would also add staff for the increased workload. Olson thinks the process is going too quickly and has asked for an extended timetable for the discussion, which the county has agreed to.

Service Area 3 has outlined a list of road work priorities which it hopes are addressed. Public meetings on the issue have not been well attended, Olson said, and he wants to gather more input before settling on an agreement.

"The problem is that we’ve been in control [of these roads] for so long, we’ve been able to make sure things are taken care of in a very expedient manner," Olson said. "We wanted to make sure that would continue to be the case."

Olson said that Jasper has been very accommodating in the discussions and that the Service Area 3 Board will not come to a conclusion on the roads proposal until late this year, possibly some time next year.

Service Area 3’s next Roads Advisory Committee meeting will be held Monday, May 5, at 7 p.m., location to be announced. For more information, visit scsa3.org.

Summit County

Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Park City and Summit County make the Park Record's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.