Cassian proposes an Oneida County take over of Swamp Lake Road

The Oneida County Board’s public works committee on Nov. 20 heard a proposal from the town of Cassian to have the county take over Swamp Lake Road as an extension of County Highway K to County Highway Y.

According to the proposal, the town of Cassian is also seeking the county to consider extending County Highway L northward to connect with what’s currently Swamp Lake Road.

Cassian officials said in the proposal there are “several factors” that make this the right time for the road transfer and extension. 

In the conclusion of the proposal, the town of Cassian says if the county includes the idea in its capital improvement plan, it could result in improved traffic flow and public safety across the western half of the county, support local economic and tourism growth and strengthen long-term transportation infrastructure to the benefit of all county residents. 

County highway commissioner Alex Hegeman told The Lakeland Times the committee expressed “mixed feelings” about the proposal during the Nov. 20 meeting. 

“You know, geographically, it kind of makes sense to have that connector run all the way out to Hwy. Y, but there’s also … every mile of highway we have to maintain,” he said. “It costs money, so it would be a pretty big financial investment for the county to take over additional (road) miles.”

There was no action taken by the committee. 

Hegeman said the decision was to “basically keep it on the back burner for now.”

The committee, he said, also requested he look into what the requirements would be if the county did want to move forward with the proposed road acquisition and reconstruction. 

Hegeman said he contacted county corporation counsel Chad Lynch, who’s looking into “some of the legalities” of what that process would look like “to make this happen.”

He said he has to contact the state Department of Transportation (DOT) as well for more information.

“But as of right now, I would say (it) was a very preliminary discussion,” Hegeman said.

He said he’s not aware of any other time Oneida County has overtaken a town road. But, Hegeman mentioned, he’s aware of instances in the 1990s when the county took over portions of state highways before. 

Hegeman said he’s not certain, because there’s research that needs to be done yet, but also thinks the county taking over Swamp Lake Road and turning it into an extension of Hwy. K could be a “fairly simple process.”

“But we’re going to do more research on it and just see what it all entails,” he said. “You know, there obviously has to be some agreements in place, real estate would have to be transferred, things like that.”

Cassian town chairman Ed Phebus told the Times on Nov. 20 the credit for coming up with the proposal needs to go to town supervisor Rod Randolph and former town supervisor Dave Priegnitz.

If the county doesn’t do it now, Phebus said, it will end up regretting it because what’s being proposed seems inevitable. 

“It’s one of those things that if they don’t do it now, they’re probably going to end up doing it in the next 10 years,” Phebus said. “That’s the way I look at it and they’re going to regret that they don’t do it with all this work (the state) is going to be doing on K with this roundabout now. I don’t know when they’re going to start working on K, probably in the next year or two, and the roundabout supposedly in the next year or two also, so it’s just one of those things, if they’re going to do something like this and with the growth this area has experienced … since 2019 to 2020, we need to start building that (area up).”

Phebus said the roundabout will “probably have more people drifting into Cassian.”

“We were looking at it as a way to kind of maybe control growth and stuff like that and help us out because with Rondele (Ranch) and the whole center that they’re building there and stuff, there’s just going to be a lot more traffic coming up here in the future for weddings or whatever they’re going to use that convention center for,” he said. “We look at it in a positive light. We’re positive about the roundabout. We think it’s kind of a good thing because Rod is on the fire department so he’s experienced with going to accidents there … and … I’ve seen the changes happen along that road … and to me, K and 51 is like a golden corridor for Cassian … and we want to try and control it the best we can.”

Phebus, who attended the Nov. 20 committee meeting, said he was “very impressed” with how committee members responded “because (the proposal) made everybody think.”

“It started the conversation … and that’s all I really wanted to do and I’m just hoping as it goes forward, they really take it under consideration,” he said.

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].