By Tracy Overstreet
tracy.overstreet@theindependent.com

Instead, landowners must pay $350 for driveway installation only after a $25 "private driveway permit" has been obtained from the county.

The permit means the driveway location and design must be approved both before and after installation.

"It's getting to be where this is costing a lot of money," said Bud Jeffries, chairman of the Hall County board.

The seven-member county board approved a private driveway policy unanimously Tuesday.

County Public Works Director Casey Sherlock said the permit is meant to prevent driveways from being installed in unsafe locations such as near bridges or at the crest of hills.

It's also meant to ensure that any driveway has the proper slope and drainage. Driveway owners will continue to bear the cost of culverts, which must be at least 15 inches in diameter, he said.

Jeffries said it used to be that a single driveway might be connected to a field. Now landowners seem to favor two or three driveways into a field or pasture.

That's a cost the county simply cannot afford any more, he said.

Sherlock actually preferred to follow the practice used in Buffalo County, where driveways are installed only by private companies not county crews.

As a compromise, Sherlock recommended the county continue to install driveways at a $350 fee. That fee covers about 75 percent of the average cost of a dirt driveway, he said.

Although the private driveway policy was approved Tuesday, the county board also directed Sherlock to formulate some written rules on driveway standards.

For the record

In other action Tuesday, the county board:

* Heard a report that county health insurance rates will likely increase 12 to 15 percent and deductibles will increase from $500 to at least $1,000 for fiscal year 2008-2009. The county's self-insured reserve fund will also need to be increased from its current level of $168,000 to between $300,000 and $700,000.

* Approved an agreement with Justice Benefits Inc. of Dallas to file reimbursement claims with the federal government for any foreign-born jail inmate not housed under a U.S. Marshal's contract. The fee for the agreement is 22 percent of all receipts. Hall County Corrections Director Fred Ruiz said this is a new opportunity for reimbursement on housing jail inmates.

* Approved the Old Cow Palace, 3602 W. Second St., as a keno sales outlet.

* Postponed approving a $48,000 additional contract with Omaha architectural firm DLR to improve the safety of the sally port and inmate transport tunnel into the Hall County Courthouse. Supervisors Scott Arnold, Pam Lancaster and Jeffries objected to the delay, which was to clarify the architect's fees.

* Approved $136,364 of annual funding to the Region III behavioral health care system.

* Authorized the purchase of a Handi-Bus for the 2008-09 fiscal year. The bus cost is $50,000 and the county's share is $10,000.