Let me share my thoughts about the consolidated road system. I believe the consolidated road system is improperly elevated for its intended use in Fannin County. The system is rigidly based and designed for use in urban areas.

There is a tipping point of efficiency for most systems to determine efficiency. If the tipping point is not correctly determined through careful elevation, the goals achieved for the systems will not be achieved. I believe the tipping point for efficiency is related to the cost of development, operational costs, coupled with the adjusted population density of the area it serves.

If the system’s operational requirements are not correctly evaluated and aligned with the population density correctly, the system will never reach its productive efficiency to warrant its total cost. I believe this system is efficient in high-population density areas, whereas Fannin County has a low-population density being rural with an abundance of open farm fields. If this evaluation is ill conceived the system will have a built-in mismatch that will create a premature tipping point never allowing it to reach its designed capable efficiency. When the tipping point is reached the system will operate in a state of deficiency. In deficiency the service will be ineffective and the financial costs will increase, preventing optimal efficiency.

The most basic failure will be compensation for the short fall in transportation costs. Semis get somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 to 8 miles per gallon at $4.50 a gallon, very expensive. This will be most difficult to realign to recover from with ever-increasing transpiration costs.

Fuel costs alone will be the primary expense in operation costs. The required movement of heavy equipment on flatbed simis traveling throughout the county on a redundant travel schedule will reduce the allotted operating funds rapidly. This random travel of flatbed semis hauling heavy equipment throughout the county will create an unnecessary burden of additional road hazards that the taxpaying citizens will be forced to
contend with. This heavy equipment transport will have a requirement of travel to and from being 15 miles one way round trip of 30 miles with a cost of $17.00 to $20,00 in diesel getting 6 to 8 miles per gallon from headquarters in Bonham to reach Honey Grove, Savoy, Elwood and south Ladonia areas round trip. This is a financial burden just to get to the job site without even fixing anything.

Let me also state that our surrounding counties that have tried this system have already returned to the Commissioner Precent System.

Road crews will be spending more time traveling to and from job sites. If you live on the 5-mile outskirt band on the perimeter of the county line, chances are you will be overlooked and left holding your breath waiting for the big yellow machines to head your way. Then there is the issue of first call, first serve; just how long will people wait.

I have not even begun to talk about the cost of reduction and then the costs of establishing a new headquarters facility. The county will go on a spending spree to be sure, for flatbed simis and big yellow machines to handle even the worst of the worst of those bad-boy potholes. I could go on and on.

This new system is supposed to be responsible for maintaining a total of 899 square miles of county land surface minus 8 miles that are water. Basically, that is a land mass area of 30 miles by 30 miles north to south and east to west. I would like everyone to have a quality education and a professional degree to go along with their $150,000 salary however, that is not the real world we live in here in Fannin County. In my opinion, the maladjusted costs will far out way any promised benefit of this fairytale road system that is being pushed on us. It is not the little hot number we are being sold on.

Fannin County taxpayers, run like the wind away from this boondoggle.

Judge Cunningham, when you leave, leave quietly and close the door behind you.