Noel quits as county highway superintendent

Tom Noel, who served as Cheyenne County Highway Superintendent for 15 years, stepped down from his position on Friday morning.

An emergency special meeting of the county commissioners was called to accept Noel’s resignation.

At the meeting, Doug Hart was appointed as Noel’s replacement. Hart has worked in the county highway department for more than 30 years, where he is currently an operator.

Cheyenne County Attorney Paul Schaub explained because Noel’s resignation took effect Friday, an emergency meeting was needed to ensure a highway superintendent was in place for the weekend.

“We need to take note the importance of this emergency meeting because without the meeting the board wouldn’t be able to take necessary action, and the necessary action is to appoint an interim road superintendent,” Schaub said. “It concerns me that if something were to happen over the weekend without a roads superintendent, it would be problematic.”

Commissioners said a permanent replacement would be named within 45 days once a proper job description was written or adopted and interviews were held.

“The situation we’re in with harvest in full swing and it’s the weekend, my opinion would be if we can appoint someone today I feel strongly that we should have that individual here to meet with us even for just 10 minutes making them aware of what a mess we have,” Commissioner Philip Sanders said. “I know it’s the weekend, but there’s some real critical situations out there, and if they don’t come back to work until Monday it could be a devastating weekend in my opinion.”

The state law requires that each community have a roads superintendent. Sanders recommended Hart for the position noting that he not only has several years of experience with the county but also holds a superintendent license.

While no reason was given for Noel’s resignation, he has faced increased pressure about the condition of county roads for the past few months.

Citizen complaints have been aired at commissioners’ meetings and elected officials have demanded improvements.

The county has 1,200 miles of road, predominately unpaved, and this year’s rain has caused headaches for the residents who travel them and the road crews that maintain them.

At a recent commissioners’ meeting, Noel said the number of highway department personnel had been reduced over the years as staff left and weren’t replaced. Budget reductions and an increase in material costs also combined to limit the number of road miles that were able to be repaired or replaced each summer, he added.