BISBEE — A 1.3-mile stretch of historic Gleeson Road is scheduled for chip sealing in April after a Cochise County Board of Supervisors vote Tuesday morning to designate it as a county maintained highway.

Patricia Morris, deputy director of the county Highway and Floodplain Department, said the 25-mile-long road that stretches from Tombstone to Elfrida has become an area collector route with around 250 vehicles a day. The increase is due to the development of old ranch land.

Gleeson was declared a county maintained road more than 100 years ago, but that was changed in 2003 and the road was dropped in status to a primitive road, a designation that reduces road maintenance work considerably, Morris said.

Property owners have been after the county for the past few years to pave the road or at least chip-seal it. That is too great an expense for the county under current economic restraints that includes a reduction of Highway User Revenue Funds.

Last year, the first leg from Tombstone city limits to Bennett Ranch Road was budgeted by the county, but it took staff members nearly a year to acquire the necessary right of way from private property owners and the State Land Department, Morris said.

Those agreements provide the county with the necessary 66-foot rights of way the entire length of the road. Staff members also had to prove the road existed prior to statehood to acquire the right of way through state lands.

The road work and chip sealing will be done by the county highway department staff for $150,000.

In other business, the supervisors moved an item on the consent agenda to the action agenda to discuss a five-year agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture animal and plant health inspector to conduct wildlife damage management in Cochise County.

In the past, the USDA agreement has been on an annual basis, but now the department wants to go to five years to “provide program stability” within their organization, as well as establish “a work and financial plan” to set program costs. The agreement would last five years, but the supervisors would have to approve it annually.

Supervisor Ann English questioned the expense of $37,441 per year, a $6,016 increase over last year, for the service considering the status of the economy.

“I have a willingness to look at one year, but I can’t support a five-year agreement, at this time,” she said.

“There are reasons to look at this carefully,” Supervisor Pat Call said. “I agree with (English) that we need to table this item to have a more in-depth discussion on it.”

When asked how often the inspector is called, County Administrator Mike Ortega replied, “I do not have that information. I do know they use them on occasion, and they are able to perform certain duties that our officers are not able to perform.”

Once it was determined there was no time constraint on the agreement, the supervisors voted to table it until next Tuesday’s meeting when representatives from the Sheriff’s Office and the USDA can explain it fully.