A rainy summer has halted the county road crew’s maintenance season, and County Engineer Benjie Sanders is asking residents to be patient with crews as they work on the roads.

“We get rain and two days of sun,” he said.

Sanders said.

Sanders said the county has more than 400 miles of dirt road, which crews are working to patch.

Sanders said with heavy rains in February, his crews got a late start with summer ditching.

“It was May before we got to ditching season,” he said. “Now, with all the rain. Everything we did is undone. At this point, we are back where we were in February.”

Sanders said his main concern was if there was a repeat in the amount of rainfall in 2009-2010.

“For all practical purposes, we are done with ditching,” he said. “If we have a wet winter, we are just going to have to keep trying to patch.”

Sanders said on a good dry summer, his crews work on ditches from April to September preparing for winter.

“Our only saving grace now is 2011-2012 maintenance,” he said.

Commissioner Charlie Sankey said without ditching there could be a lot of blowouts.

Sanders said the road problems are not only in Crenshaw County, but in neighboring counties, as well.

“We just ask for patience,” he said. “Right now, we are operating on ‘if it ain’t broke; don’t fix it.’”