Resident urges county action on County Road 69 safety near Byzantine pit

A Fremont County resident urged commissioners to evaluate safety and traffic control on County Road 69 near the Byzantine pit, saying increased residential development, commercial hauling and weekend tourist traffic have made the posted 30 mph road hazardous.

"We now have 25 houses out there ... So that's an increase of 340% of traffic on that road in the last 20 years," said Jennifer Keegan, who described heavy truck traffic, high speeds and unstable road shoulders after county repair work in January. Keegan said she has asked the sheriff's department for enforcement several times without success and requested that the county staff arrange a sheriff presence for a two-hour Friday morning to study speeds and conditions.

Keegan described a patching job that left a six-foot-deep section on the road shoulder and said semis now are constrained to the road center, creating lengthy backups at the pit and unsafe driving behavior. She said an organization she referred to as AMRA donated aggregate but she did not have specifics on quantities.

The chair responded that the county would follow up: "We will have some conversations with some folks and see if we can help the situation," the chair said. The transcript records no formal motion or vote on Keegan's request; commissioners said they would speak with staff and law enforcement to evaluate options.

Keegan's numerical estimates of vehicle counts and percentage increases were presented as her calculations and were not independently verified in the meeting record.