Greg Walden: “Morrow County road department has 19 employees to service 850 miles of county roads. They are going to be forced to lay…”

“Morrow County road department has 19 employees to service 850 miles of county roads. They are going to be forced to lay off at least seven, perhaps as many as nine. Wallowa County, 700 miles, county roads maintained by a staff of 14. Soon there will only be seven. That is possibly one person for every 100 miles of road or the same distance from here to Richmond, Virginia. You would have one road maintenance person. This story is repeated over and over in my district, Congresswoman Hooley's district, your district, Congressman DeFazio's district, Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers' district. All over the rural West we are facing this enormous problem. And people love to come out into their Federal forests. I love to get out into our Federal forests. I love to backpack and do all the things many of us do. It is a wonderful attraction. But people get lost, they get injured, and who is there to pick them up? The local county. The county sheriff, the local rescue patrol. And that is why this funding is so important so they will have the resources, they will have the people when you break a leg or you fall down an ice shaft somewhere.”