Carey in ‘Catch-22’ over road repair funds’

Road conditions within Carey City limits continue to frustrate area residents.

At the Tuesday night meeting of the city council, Mayor Rick Baird said discussions are continuing with Blaine County Commissioners to renew the contract Carey has with the county’s Road and Bridge Department.

Legally, Carey is responsible for streets within the city limits, and the city should be able to draw road funds from the state to maintain them. However, because Carey does not operate a city shop, and does not own the equipment needed to maintain the roads, it contracts out with Blaine County Road and Bridge.

Funds that are available for roads in Carey at the state level are not being collected either, because a circuitous law denies access to funds that should be allocated to Carey to help maintain the roads.

In 1992, a law was passed which states that a city can not collect road funds from the state unless it is operating a city shop. A city shop would house and maintain equipment like snowplows and graders.

The law also states, however, that a city must be already collecting road funds before it can operate a city shop.

Mayor Baird said the city is caught in a "Catch-22 over the issue of road maintenance".

When Carey incorporated, an application was sent to the Idaho Transportation Department for dispersal of road funds. Population of a city is what determines the amount of funds allocated by the state.

The state Attorney General, on the basis of that law, turned down the application for road funds by the city of Carey because it was not operating a city shop.

"This is one screwball law," said senior research analyst at the Idaho Transportation Department James Witherell.

Last year, Carey had a population of 417. The city was entitled to $13,604, but because it does not operate a city shop it could not collect these funds. The money went to other cites throughout Idaho.

Clayton and Starr are two other cities within Idaho that fall into the same category as Carey. They cannot collect road funds because they do not have a city shop.