Madison County adopts draft road-inventory map as "best available data"

The Madison County Board of Commissioners adopted Resolution 23-2026 on June 23 to accept a draft county road inventory map as the county's "best available data" for administering county road ordinances and resolutions. The board opened a public hearing on the map and associated spreadsheet, heard brief public comment and approved the resolution by recorded vote.

County staff and members of the road-index working group told commissioners the product is the first step in collating scattered road records into a single, searchable index that documents where county roads start and end, center lines, right-of-way widths and maintenance responsibility. Staff described longstanding discrepancies — including Federal land boundaries where the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management may not have consistent start/end designations — and said federal partners had asked to be updated as the index is finalized.

Commissioners praised the working group’s effort and the visual clarity of the map; county staff said the map will be tied to a spreadsheet that updates the old road index to provide a consistent public resource. The resolution text cites Montana Code Annotated authorities and existing county ordinances and resolutions (including ordinance 3-2025 and resolution 28-2025) as the legal basis for adopting the draft product as the county’s working data set until completion of a full verified Madison County Road Index.

The board’s motion to adopt Resolution 23-2026 passed by recorded ayes; the resolution instructs staff to use the draft map and spreadsheet as the county’s working dataset for administering the listed ordinances and resolutions while a full index is completed.

Next steps: staff said the road-index work will continue after current budget actions and that staff will return to the board with follow-up items as the project advances.