BISBEE - With the possible loss of over $1 million in state HURF (highway user revenue funds) money, the county's highway and floodplain department staff has been scrambling trying to come up with a work schedule within the confines of a $14.8 million budget to attend to some of the 1,462 miles of road in the county.

At Tuesday's work session with the county board of supervisors, acting highway and floodplain director Patricia Morris said, "Safety, protection of the public's investment and new capital investments are the priority. The cost of fuel and materials have increased dramatically since the war in Iraq.

2006 construction costs were double that of 1998 and triple the costs in the '80s."

HURF revenues have increased only 36 percent since 1982, she explained, so the supervisors are left to pick and choose road projects carefully.

One hundred eighty miles of road in the county are scheduled to be chip sealed in the fiscal 2007-08 year. Among the 17 selected are Hereford Road, Dragoon Road, Leslie Canyon and Jefferson Road. There will be 12.83 miles of road recycled and reconstructed on two roads, Ocotillo and Davis. There are 2.4 miles of public private partnership projects in Mountain Ranch Subdivision and West Camino de Mesa. That totals $2.4 million.

A sum of $813,000 has been earmarked for culverts, traffic signals, guard rail repair, fencing and right of way acquisition.

After those mandatory cost are figured in, plus grading dirt roads, a $500,000 emergency fund and department salaries and benefits, that leaves only $1 million to do other important road projects in the county, such as Moson Road and Gleeson Road, and complete the development impact fee study.

The supervisors gave a nod to spending $635,000 on obtaining right of ways on Moson Road and improving the intersection with Thuma. That will be just a part of the overall $5 million project of improving the road from end to end.

They also plan to approve paving 1.5 miles of Gleeson beginning in Tombstone at a cost of $180,000.

Supervisor Paul Newman asked if Gleeson could be on a yearly schedule to continue paving the road that connects Tombstone and Elfrida as requested by residents on both ends of the 13-mile road.

County Administrator Jody Klein said that could put the county at risk of a lawsuit since Arizona law stipulates projects over a certain dollar figure must be contracted out. It's a fine line, and he suggested having the deputy county attorney look into the matter.

Supervisor chairman Richard Searle stated he thought some of the trouble with county roads were loaded trucks too heavy for roads like Davis Road and Kansas Settlement. He asked if it was possible to start charging a fee for a permit to ride such roads and was told it was possible.

Call asked what the county needed to do to enforce the weight limits to prevent the tractor trailer trucks from tearing up the roads and Klein replied there was no one trained and the county had no scales.

What worries Morris and highway project engineer Allon Owen is that there are not sufficient funds to maintain all 1,462 miles of roads in the county.

Owen prepared a 10-year road-needs study that he presented to the supervisors and again pointed out the high cost of road materials and the difficulty in getting concrete. He indicated the lack of a source for concrete nearly stopped the construction of the new bridge on Hereford Road last year.

He pointed out that HURF has not been increased by the state since 1982 and suggested the supervisors talk with state legislators about boosting the gas tax. He also suggested that the county consider other ways, such as a raise in sales tax or county tax to pay for roads.

Owen stressed the county faced a 10-year shortfall in funding of over $32 million if the current HURF trend continues.

He said, "The roadway maintenance budget provided for with the present level of funding is deficient by over $1.6 million per year for existing road maintenance and over $1.63 million for dirt road maintenance. Most of the county's available resources should go to pavement construction rather than upgrading dirt roads to paved roads."

Owen pointed out that $14.87 million is needed for essential capital projects just to replace deteriorating bridges, culverts, cattleguards and improve drainage conditions over the next 10 years as well.

"If we keep this current schedule of maintenance up over the next 10 years we may lose some of our roads," he concluded.