A small county building a strong road commission base
Lansing, MI – The Arenac County Road Commission (ACRC) gets the spotlight in the current issue of Crossroads magazine for its creative deal-making and dedication to keeping the community informed on road projects.
ACRC serves Michigan’s third-smallest county that includes 12 townships, six cities and villages, and significant tribal holdings of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Nation.
Although the county is small, ACRC made big decisions to revamp its facilities. First, they purchased a 25-year-old building from Consumers Energy in the Standish Industrial Park to replace its deteriorating red-brick building built in 1941.
ACRC got even more creative and sold its limestone quarry to finance a new 19,600 square foot garage, along with a long-forgotten piece of land along Lake Huron, to purchase property for a new road salt shed.
That deal-making is how Michigan’s third-smallest county came to have all new facilities in a centralized location, with a staff that now has more pride as well as greater efficiency, said Blair Dyer, superintendent-manager for ACRC.
In addition to improved facilities, ACRC puts a priority on improving relationships with local road partners and residents by informing citizens about how their tax dollars are spent and by taking complaints seriously.
Selling off unneeded assets, changing business practices and treating the public with respect, keep ACRC on a good footing in a sandy, lakeside place. To read the full story in the latest issue of Crossroads, go to micountyroads.org/Newsroom/Crossroads-Magazine.
The 83 members of the County Road Association of Michigan represent the unified voice for a safe and efficient county transportation infrastructure system in Michigan, including appropriate stewardship of the public’s right-of-way in rural and urban Michigan. Collectively, Michigan’s county road agencies manage 75 percent of all roads in the state, including 90,000 miles of roads and 5,700 bridges. County road agencies also maintain the state’s highway system in 64 counties. Michigan has the nation’s fourth-largest local road system.
