Today, County Engineer Benjie Sanders will treat his highway department to a steak lunch.

He’s making good on a promise to his guys that if our county’s paved roads improved to the top 5 in the state, then he’d give them that.

We ran a story on that a few weeks back, and explained that the roads have improved from scores in the 70s to having a 93.28.

Sanders said then the county’s ranking improved from 56th in the state in 2000, when it had a 77.5 score.

Yesterday, Sanders, along with the county commission and Superintendent Randy Wilkes and others gathered as part of a statewide ATRIP status report.

The county has received nearly $10 million in these funds for 18 bridge projects and one resurfacing project, all of which will continue to improve our county’s road infrastructure and the overall safety of all who drive these roads.

Wilkes was quoted as saying buses within the system travel 1,500 miles each school day.

These guys on the highway department and Sanders work tirelessly to ensure that the county’s roads are maintained for our safety.

They work to fix broken pavement, put up street signs and other transportation-related signs, work on dirt roads and more.

Many times, these guys are on the front lines are the first ones to get scolded for a pothole or the need to have a dirt road graded, but their hard work has not gone unnoticed by folks at the state level and it shouldn’t pass us by either.

The summer’s rains wreaked havoc on their progress and undid many of the projects they had completed earlier this year.

If you see these guys around give them a confidence boost and say “thank you.” You never know when you may need them.