Soggy gravel roads leave some rural residents stranded

The road less travelled now runs right past Jeff Schmatt's home in rural Mount Vernon.

“I haven't had mail delivered since Monday,” said Schmatt.

Schmatt lives on Holmans Road, and said it's in such bad shape the USPS can't get through.

The final blow came on Tuesday when a garbage truck got stuck in the road.  The Linn County Secondary Roads Department immediately closed that section because of the impassable gouges left behind.

“Now we gotta travel on more gravel roads to get to town, it was very upsetting,” said Schmatt.

Nick Bettis with the roads department said the Waste Management truck wasn't supposed to be on the road because it was overweight.  His staff had posted a 5-ton limit on that and many other roads in the county because of the soggy conditions.

Roads in Johnson County aren't any better, said Kevin Hackathorn with the Johnson County Secondary Roads Department.

“We got some that our trucks have got stuck in, school buses even,” said Hackathorn. “We're just asking people to be cautious out there, it's just like in winter, bad conditions on gravel roads right now.”

Those bad conditions come from many factors, including the recent rain and the lack of a pro-longed freeze-thaw cycle in the snow melt.

Bettis said they've taken lots of calls from people wondering why the county hasn't fixed the roads yet this spring.

“If we're going to tear up the road to try and fix it, it's counter-intuitive to do that,” said Bettis.

Bettis proves that point by showing a section of road where a grader got stuck on Thursday.  The machine sunk three-feet deep in the middle of the road.

“Sometimes our only option is to close it off, until Mother Nature is able to dry it up,” said Bettis.

Bettis said most of the roads in Linn County are okay, but those that are wet are really wet.

By Justin Foss, KCRG-TV