BETHLEHEM — A Clark County Commissioners’ decision to have road work done outside of his home on his neighbor’s land has other neighbors wondering why.

Commissioner John Perkins ordered ditches along Bethlehem-New Washington Road and Camp Creek Road in Bethlehem filled with dirt and seeded. The work is along property owned by Mike Oles, Perkins’ next-door neighbor. The work began Sept. 5 and continued through Thursday.

“We saw the county bringing equipment in and parking it in John’s driveway,” Bethlehem resident Trish Roehm said. “So one of my neighbors asked what was going on, and the county worker just said that he’s cutting this grass and we’re going to put some dirt out, which we thought was odd.

“As it turned out, it was a huge project. I mean, all morning long, they were bringing loads and loads of dirt in, and filling in the ditch and making it all nice and smooth in front of his house, where I’ve still got a big drop-off in front of my house. No one ever contacted me.”

Perkins said he has the authority as a commissioner to order work on “minor projects,” and that he ordered this project done in the name of public safety.

“As a commissioner, I’m charged with providing safe roads and access to the public,” Perkins said. “It’s solely my decision — I want to make that clear — as the commissioner in that district to order whatever road work I deem necessary and resources are available. It doesn’t come to a vote. Every commissioner has authority in their district to do certain small projects, and this was one of them.”

Perkins said the ditches along Camp Creek and Bethlehem-New Washington roads presented a hazard.

“There’s no shoulder on that road coming down that hill,” Perkins said in reference to Camp Creek Road. “If someone would have come off that road, the car could have flipped over. I saw it as a definite safety issue.”

When asked if the area had presented a problem in the past, Perkins replied, “Not to my knowledge. I’d rather be proactive than reactive.”

Perkins noted that the land where the work was performed is used as a parking area for the Autumn on the River Festival, which takes place in late-October. But Roehm is a committee member on the festival’s committee, and she said the work is unwelcome.

“Part of the field is used for parking, and we had it nice so we just had one place that cars can come and go, because we rope it off and ask for donations, just in a certain area,” Roehm said. “I don’t know why they wanted to make it access — to give us more access, because we don’t want more access. We want to be able to get the cars to where we can ask for donations.”

Perkins said he did not talk to members of the festival committee prior to ordering the work.

The work on Camp Creek Road stops at the property line of Sandy and Paul Hutsell.

“We weren’t approached at all, and I couldn’t understand how come they were doing it,” Sandy Hutsell said. “But there was quite a few county trucks doing the work. I didn’t know what was going on. Nobody ever approached us.”

“You have to start somewhere,” Perkins said. “There’s two other pieces of property that I’ve already been notified that would like to have that shoulder built up, too.”

Perkins said that on projects such as the shoulder work he ordered, man hours are not tracked because everything is done in-house. He ordered the work verbally, and no work ticket was issued.

When contacted, County Highway Superintendent Jim Ross said that no paperwork on the project existed.

“Anybody that asks, we usually try to accommodate them if we can,” Ross said. “We do it everywhere. It’s not just there — it’s Borden area, Starlight area, Henryville. We’ve hauled dirt up to Marysville, a lot of dirt up there this summer.”

Perkins said the proximity of his residence in Bethlehem is what made him aware of the problem. He said the use of his authority to order the work was appropriate.

“I have no comment, other than to say that I think that safety issues are always appropriate, and that property being in close proximity to me has nothing to do with a safety concern,” Perkins said. “Obviously, if something’s close to you, and you see it and your neighbors talk to you about it, then you become more aware of it.”