OCONEE COUNTY — Oconee County officials say they intend to take a harder line on securing landowners’ cooperation regarding paving of the county’s 418 unpaved roads.

Getting landowners to cede rights of way is a major obstacle to moving ahead with paving, County Engineer Mack Kelley said this week.

As the county moves to make headway in paving as many of the roughly 200 miles of unpaved roads as practicable, county officials said landowners should be offered a simple choice to make, and make fast.

“We go to the people for rights of way and give them two weeks to decide,” said County Council chairman George Blanchard. “If they don’t want to give rights of way, we move on. Most people, I think, will know immediately whether they want to make that small sacrifice to get their roads paved.”

County Administrator Dale Surrett said county officials might consider simply abandoning roads where landowners balk at ceding rights of way.

The landowners and residents along the road then would be responsible for the road’s maintenance, Surrett said.

Abandonment, however, would be an “extreme measure,” Surrett said.

Only three unpaved roads in the county have all rights of way and utility issues settled so paving can move ahead, according to road department officials.

Under current funding methods, the county budget allocates $2 million a year for road paving, an amount split between new paving and overlays. The $1 million for new paving will pave about three miles.

Oconee County has roughly $3 million worth of rolled-over paving funds, and county officials have considered possibly raising as much as $5 million for new paving as part of a bond issue for capital projects. The County Council is expected to take up discussion of the bond issue and capital projects within the next few weeks.

County officials also will consider a new scoring system proposed by county engineer Kelley for use in rating the priority of roads to be paved.

A council resolution of 2005 requires the county to rescore roads to be paved every three years.

Kelley’s equation assigns half the scoring points based on the road’s use, with 150 trips per day considered the maximum load an unpaved road can bear before maintenance cost for that road usually begins to outweigh the cost of paving.

Other points are assigned according to safety, utility issues and construction difficulties.

Blanchard and Council member Tommy Crumpton, chairman of the council’s transportation committee, directed road department officials to move ahead with resolving utility and right of way issues with roads with a view toward compiling a bidding list for the coming year.