The Lenawee County Road Commission is bracing for another 5 percent revenue drop and talking about selling construction equipment idled by a lack of money to build roads.

State officials have adjusted their estimates from a 3.45 percent decline in fuel taxes to 2.28 percent for 2011, managing director Orrin Gregg reported to the road commission board on Thursday.

“I’m still leaning toward estimating a 5 percent reduction,” Gregg said. Estimates he calculated from a number of sources in the past three years have been much closer to actual revenue than the state’s estimates.

Last year the state estimated Lenawee County would receive $6.7 million, only a slight decrease from 2008. The total ended up being $6.45 million. The road commission’s budget estimate was less than $40,000 off the mark.

The state was $300,000 too high in its 2008 revenue estimate and nearly $400,000 too high in 2007, according to Gregg’s reports.

Steadily eroding revenue has taken the road commission out of construction operations to focus on maintenance and preservation efforts. That has left several large-ticket pieces of equipment sitting idle.

Road commissioner Donald Isley recalled his opposition to buying a crane eight years ago that he criticized as too costly at the time and costing too much to operate.

“We’ve got to be more careful about how we spend our money. It’s just not there any more,” Isley said. He also questioned a pan excavator and a large bulldozer that have not been used in several years.

Gregg said the crane was needed at the time it was purchased because the road commission was building timber bridges for townships on local roads.

“Right now, the townships just don’t have the money,” Gregg said. Many are instead waiting for state bridge grants that require private contractors and concrete structures that meet federal highway standards.

The three pieces of heavy equipment and a tree shear are now used little because they are for construction projects, not maintenance, Gregg said.

Many road agencies and private contractors have heavy construction equipment sitting idle, said assistant managing director/engineer Scott Merillat.

“Even though we’re not using them now, nobody else is either,” Merillat said. At the time they were purchased, he said, construction equipment was so much in demand it probably would not have been available to lease.

There is a surplus available now, he said, and there is no market should the road commission try to sell its construction equipment.

“You’re not going to get but pennies on the dollar for any of that stuff,” board member Stanley Wilson said.

“By the time we get into a position where we have funding to use it again, it will be obsolete,” board chairman Robert Emery said. He said he believes it will be at least 10 years before there is funding for Lenawee County to build roads again. Selling equipment does not seem to be a practical solution either, he said, except in the unlikely event a buyer showed up with the right amount of money.

Wilson said he is optimistic the state Legislature will act in the near future to raise funding because of growing public pressure in response to the state’s deteriorating roads.

Gregg said he expects townships will soon return to ordering timber bridges that will provide work for the crane. It is also needed for occasional repair work at the asphalt plant.

The excavator pan is expected to be used next year for a large culvert replacement project on Oakwood Road, Merillat said.

http://www.lenconnect.com/news/x128159306/Falling-road-funds-leave-county-equipment-idle