WASHINGTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — Washington County leaders have corrected an issue with standing oil on County Road 655 after 5NEWS aired residents' concerns Aug. 28.
In an effort to mitigate dust, the county road department poured what they say is known and approved oil on a county road.
Tayler Story, an affected resident, said it caused issues for locals as "it was dumped and over poured and so it created standing puddles of sticky, tacky oil on the roads, and it stuck to everything."
Story initially spoke with 5NEWS on Wednesday about how the oil affected travel on the road and covered anything in contact. She said the county returned the next day to solve the issue.
“The judge and I both went out to the scene and assessed the situation. We're not pleased with the results," Michael Stewart said.
Michael Stewart is the Chief of Staff for County Judge Patrick Deakins. He said they'd visited the county road after hearing complaints and watching 5NEWS' story. They had road crews come out to pour chips over the standing oil before the day was over.
"They moved equipment around, personnel, and we were there until, you know, last night. We finished up around 6 p.m. last night, once it was all done," Stewart said.
Story said she appreciates the county's efforts to make it right.
"That morning that they had other jobs, but after they got the other jobs done, they still they had to come out here and get it done before the day was over. And we were so appreciative," Story said. "The chief of staff called me earlier, and they are going to be dropping off cleaning supplies for the vehicles."
While Story is glad the oil issue has been resolved, she says it also happened last year. Moving forward, she just wants more communication.
"I hope this has been an eye-opener," Story said.
"We want to continuously improve," Stewart said. "Talk to our citizens and the residents of Washington County, make sure that they're happy with their roads that we're working on for them when we fail. We want to learn from it. We want to move on and make it better."
County Judge Deakins issued the following statement on Thursday concerning the county road:
"Last week the Washington County Road Department started a road upgrade, primarily aimed at dust mitigation, on Prairie View Road just outside Prairie Grove. This improvement called for using known and approved oil products, but we used a slightly different process. After reviewing these results as part of our quality control process, we have concluded that this project did not meet our expectations."
"We are working to remediate any negative impacts our citizens are feeling. Here at Washington County, we strive for perfection, and our men and women of the road department work extremely hard under extremely challenging conditions. The result on Prairie View does not reflect that pursuit, and on behalf of Washington County, I apologize for any adverse effects this might have caused our citizenry. Today, we are currently working to move equipment to the area, and a layer of chips will be applied to the road over the oil product that was previously applied. This way, no vehicles will be driving over or through the oil as it continues to be absorbed and harden."
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