PANAMA CITY— The Bay County Commission may start doing repairs on privately owned roads and bridges to ensure they’re passable for ambulances and fire trucks.
The commission is scheduled to discuss the proposed ordinance at its Tuesday meeting.
The major storms that rolled through in July and August helped compel the commission to consider the change. The rain damaged many private dirt roads creating potentially dangerous situations where emergency personnel would not be able to reach residents’ homes.
Commissioner George Gainer said he favors the measure, but it would need to be applied narrowly.
Gainer said generally when the county repairs a road — even puts a shovel in the ground — it technically takes ownership of it and must maintain it.
“This is just in an emergency situation,” Gainer said.
If passed the change would allow the county to repair damaged roads and bridges on private property to ensure emergency vehicles — fire trucks and ambulances — could reach residents.
The county’s chief of emergency services would discern if the road or bridge needed emergency repairs.
The repairs would be funded with county dollars, but recouped from the property owners or the “individuals benefitting from the remedy,” according to the ordinance.
Gainer said no more money than necessary should be spent making the roads passable. He said Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) likely would pay for the repairs in most cases, so the county should have little problem recovering its money.
Gainer said the private road problem was caused several years ago when numerous subdivisions were built cheaply without roads and drainage. In his view, the county never should have accepted them, but now he says the county should look out for these residents.
“I think we have an obligation to make these roads passable, you know from standpoint of being able to get an ambulance in there or a fire (truck),” he said.
Gainer added: “I’m just glad to see the county start to recognize the fact that we really need to do something for these people in cases of emergency.”
The County Commission will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Bay County Government Center in Panama City. The meeting is open to the public.