McALESTER — Is a county commissioner misspending county dollars to access a road to a fishing hole?
On Wednesday, one former district attorney said he thinks that’s exactly what’s being done.
“Commissioner Gene Rogers is misspending public tax dollars on a non existent road to benefit a few county employees,” said Jim Miller former District 18 District Attorney.
Miller said he and his clients along with several other property owners will attend Monday’s commissioners meeting to get some answers.
The road work was allegedly done near Hartshorne on private property and Federal property managed by the Army Corps of Engineers to reach a platted county road called Low Water Dam Road. Low Water Dam road leads to a popular fishing hole.
Earlier this year another access road to the same fishing spot brought Miller along with county residents and uniformed county employees, to the Pittsburg County commissioners meeting speak out both for and against the county spending money to work on a platted road that had been closed for several years.
Monday a former county commissioner Bill Webber appeared before the Pittsburg County commissioners to ask District 1 Commissioner Gene Rogers, why another road was made to the same fishing hole.
Former Pittsburg County Commissioner Bill Webber told Rogers that the damage made to build another access road was unnecessary.
“In the process of building this road, Pittsburg County employees, under the direction of Gene Rogers, also compromised the natural water drainage in the is area by building road without any mind to the water drainage on either side of the new road,” Webber said.
Rogers denied his crews had anything to do with the building of the new road.
“I assure you that I have not ordered this,” Rogers said.
“The work we did was to get to an existing road.”
During the meeting, county resident Kirk Ketter questioned Rogers.
“If this is an existing road that why did you have to uproot trees? Why did you have to tear down a 40-year-old fence.
Meanwhile Miller said his clients are still unclear as to why the county continues to clear a road which has sat un-maintained for several years.
And Ketter said the county shouldn’t be spending money to work on this road when other more widely used roads sit in disrepair.
“It’s a misappropriation of state funds,” said Keeter.
“County Commissioner Gene Rogers’ use of state funding the building of the new road on federal property is particularly outrageous given the extremely poor condition of the existing county roads in the immediate vicinity.”
Rogers said he will be meeting with Assistant District Attorney Richard Hull to visit the area this week. The issue is scheduled to be on commissioners next scheduled meeting Monday at 9 a.m. in the county commissioners conference room at the Pittsburg County Courthouse. The meetings are open to the public.
For more on this story, see the print or electronic editions of the McAlester News-Capital. Click here for print edition home delivery or click here to see the Smart Edition for your computer, tablet, e-reader or smartphone.
Contact Jeanne LeFlore at jleflore@mcalesternews.com.
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