The Highway Men
The Highway Men
Rural Politics, Public Office, and Incremental Wins
One of the things that many people do not know about me is that I am “technically” an elected public official in the great state of Idaho. More specifically, I am the chairman of the Rural Atlanta Highway District, which consists of a team of two operators and a meager budget. We are responsible for keeping the roughly 40+ miles of dirt road open (plus another 40 or so “unofficial miles”) year round.
This consists of removing boulders and rock slides, snow slides, and anything in between… fallen trees from storms or beaver, washed out roads, and helping stranded passersby. It takes untold amounts of preparation to keep dust abated in the summer and snow cleared in the winter. We often have to battle aging equipment, weather, bureaucratic red-tape, and unsatisfied patrons.
Despite the hurdles, we always press on. We are constantly working to secure funds, acquire new equipment, and improve the quality and longevity of our cherished rural road. Those efforts largely go unnoticed, but sometimes there is cause for silent celebration. And silent celebrate we have done this past year. Without it getting put on the broader radar, we have secured grants from the Forrest Service, overflow funds from a broader ITD project, and most recently dissolved our odd grandfathered-in district voting rules. All of this is an amazing achievement for a small end-of-the-road highway district who had been stagnating for some time.
With that said, I am proud of where we have been able to take our little highway district in the two years that I have been serving. As I step down from my role at the end of this year I can’t wait to see where the other commissioners (and ones to be appointed) take our great little group!
