Thanks to the Leelanau County Road Commission

Patricia writes “Thanks to the Leelanau County Road Commission for keeping the roads clear. Without them it would be very difficult to capture our wintry scenes in the countryside.”

Thanks indeed. The Leelanau County Road Commission today is responsible for 170 miles of primary roads and 425 miles of local roads. Approximately 80% of these miles are paved. Their Brief History of the Leelanau County Road Commission says:

In October of 1916 at their annual meeting, the Supervisors of Leelanau County adopted a resolution ordering “that the question of adopting the County Road System be submitted to a vote of the electors of the county at the election to be held the first Monday in April 1917.” After the popular vote passed, the Supervisors appointed the first three Road Commissioners for Leelanau County: Elmer Billman, Chairman; Clinton B. Fisher; and Marcus Hoyt.

The Leelanau County Road Commission first met on June 26, 1917 in Leland, Michigan. According to the minutes, the “Object of meeting being, to confer with Board of Supervisors, upon various road matters, to endeavor to agree upon plans and manner of proceeding with construction of, and also to ask the Supervisors to provide means of paying for services of Surveyor and necessary help, for survey of roads.”

Fourteen years later the Fourteenth Annual Report (October 1930) showed that the County Road System in Leelanau County consisted of 32.9 miles of unimproved road, 105.35 miles of gravel road and 8.0 miles of 1″ Bit. Retread. During the winter of 1929-1930 the Road Commission maintained a total of 66 miles of “winter roads” that were snowplowed on a regular basis. The records showed that snow fence was regularly erected each fall and removed each spring along many of these routes. The total cost of winter maintenance was $4853.

As anyone who crosses the county line into Leelanau well knows, their service is still excellent!

The photo is LCRC Hard at Work by Pentax K1000 Gal and you might enjoy the “Leelanau roads” slideshow from Flickr.