The Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office and Road and Bridge will be working together to get Road 5 speed limits posted as soon as possible.
At last week’s Big Horn County Commission meeting, the commissioners approved a motion directing the two agencies to post necessary signs, including caution speed limits on curves along Road 5 between Byron and Cowley.
The commissioners told Sheriff Ken Blackburn that an old survey of county roads had been located with a recommended speed limit of 40 mph on Road 5. Some of the roads in the survey have already been posted including the Greybull River Road (55 mph) and Orchard Bench Road (45 mph).
There were 27 roads included in the survey, completed in 1988. The commissioners said once Road 5 is signed, Road and Bridge can work on signing the other roads.
Roads recommended for a 50 mph speed limit were Road 43½ and Lane 55. Lane 16½ and Road 26 were both recommended at 55 mph.
Recommended for 45 mph were Beaver Creek, Trapper Creek, Cold Springs, Roads 7, 7½, 9, 30, Lower 34 and Road 36/Lane 32½. Suggested for 35 were Horse Shoe Road, Roads 11½, 16, Upper 34, Lanes 2½, 12 and 55.
Recommended for 30 mph was Lane 39.
In other news regarding Lane 39, Mike Sherman appeared before the commissioners to speak against making a portion of Lane 39, the portion that runs through his property, a county road. The county has set a hearing at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 8, to hear public comment and make a final determination on whether to declare that section a county/public road.
Sherman told the commissioners that he used that road and other roads to the BLM property on the other side and there were shorter routes than through his property.
He said he and other residents along Lane 39 have had trouble with vandalism and burglaries, which he believes will only increase if the road is open to the public.
He said by state statute his immediate neighbors traveling to their head gates have access to the road, as do emergency personnel and personnel from utilities. Sherman said the only people he has prevented from using the road have either been people who have been causing property damage or who have been convicted felons.
Sherman said he has completed granting a road easement to Wyatt Schatz.
“Why is this road so important?” Sherman asked, adding that the county has abandoned two roads, one to the north and another to the south of the road they are currently trying to make public.