Douglas County resident Elsie Hunsinger said she knew her taxes would increase because of Wakarusa Township’s goal to pave as many gravel roads as possible.

But Hunsinger, whose home is by a gravel road, said paying the additional tax would be well worth it.

“As it is right now, you just get your car wash and look out. It’ll be dirty just as quick,” said Hunsinger, who resides on East 1450 Road just off County Road 458. “I think we need to have the paved roads. I’m anxious for them.”

In December, Wakarusa Township will begin collecting property taxes to pave its gravel roads. Township patrons approved a measure in the April election to increase property taxes by up to 50 percent for four years. The increase will give the township about $350,000 more a year. The money will assist with putting hard surfaces atop the township’s remaining 35 miles of gravel roads.

“I don’t believe that we’ll be completely through in four years, but it will be a good start,” said Wakarusa Township Treasurer Norman Leary.

The thought was that six miles of new road could be paved every year for the next four years. But township trustees said they expected more money would have to be spent on materials than originally anticipated because of increases in the cost of rock and fuel.

• 6News video: Property tax to be used to pave roads (10-06-05)

Leary said the trustee board members would have a better idea of costs when they took bids after Jan. 1. Once that is known, Leary said he and his two fellow trustees would be able to better determine how many miles of new road could be paved annually.

Work is expected to begin June 1.

“We’ve kind of got a plan laid out,” Leary said. “We want the work on this to get done and so do the people.”

Leary said the trustees’ plan was for work to happen in one portion of the township each year because of the time it took to move equipment.

“We’d like to do as much as we can with the money we have and next year go to another area of the township,” he said.

The township has been divided into three districts: southeast, southwest and northwest. The southeast portion is east of Haskell Road and goes to about East 1800 Road. The southwest district lies south of Wakarusa Valley School, 1104 E. 1000 Road. The northwest section is west of the K-Mart Distribution Center, 2400 Kresge Road.

Work likely will being in the southeast district in June, Leary said. In 2007, work will move to the southwest district and to the northwest district in 2008.

“In the fourth year, we’ll catch up on the roads we don’t have done in the southeast and southwest parts,” Leary said. “I know everybody wants to be first, but we had to start someplace.”

While the new funds will go toward paving new roads, the township will continue maintaining blacktop roads with regular money in the budget.

Hunsinger said she has lived on her family’s farm on East 1450 Road since she was born in the 1920s. She remembers it being a big deal when she was a child to get a gravel road. It used to be red clay.

“And now we’re going to a blacktop road,” she said. “I guess it shows how things change and what’s good at one time can be even better.”