Mountain View County has a new person in place to monitor and protect road infrastructure across the municipality.
Don Rude, industry inspector with the county, took on the position in recent weeks and brings a lot of experience to the table.
He replaces Ron Campbell, who retired from the position in December.
“I've been in the dirt world my whole working career so I know how to build roads and I've worked on the oil side of it too,” said Rude, 44.
He started building roads in 1989. Before working with Mountain View County, he looked after the oil industry activity in Red Deer County for several years.
“I just love dealing with the oil industry and all the ratepayers and making everybody understand that we all have a job to do. And trying to make peace and get along with everybody – I like dealing with both sides,” he said.
The roads will be monitored seven days a week.
“I'm on the road every day, you know, I'm dealing with concerns and complaints every single day. And if I'm not there, I have a couple other people that I'll be training too,” he said.
People have to get permits from the county to carry major hauls through the county, and then Rude is provided with the haul route. He then does a pre-inspection of the route, mid-inspection and post-inspection, according to Ron Baker, the county's director of operational services.
“So he is constantly on the roads where all of these things are going on, to see if they're damaging the road,” said Baker.
If the roads are damaged, Rude will tell the permit holder what needs to be done to fix them, and the permit holder will either fix it or hire a contractor to do so, he said.
Afterwards, county officials inspect the work to see if it's completed correctly.
“And if they don't do it, we usually have a bond that they have to post before they start, and we use the bond money to do the repairs,” Baker explained.
Baker said Rude's position is important and he is the right person for the job.
“It's a very important position here because in the county it's incredible how much hauling goes on, especially around fracs. It's not rare to have a couple of hundred loads of water come into a frac,” said Baker.
“He knows roads, he came very experienced. We basically just gave him a truck and a phone and away he went. He knows how the system all works. We were very fortunate to find somebody that was so ready to go and knows the business.”
Rude is looking forward to working in the county.
“It's a great team from what I've seen so far, a lot of knowledgeable people,” said Rude.
“I'm looking forward to getting to know the roads and getting to know all the ratepayers and the oil industry and making sure that everybody works good together.”
