Vilas County apparently “lost” 8,000 tons of road gravel valued at $40,000 from a highway department gravel pit in St. Germain over the last eight years according to a report by highway commissioner Nick Scholtes to the county highway committeerecently.
“We were reshaping Highway C and with a gravel pile that we thought we had enough but found we were off substantially,” Scholtes said. “We had put up 20,000 tons in 2008 and apparently 8,000 tons was lost. It cost us $5.50 per ton at that time so the loss was high.”
Scholtes felt the loss was underestimating the cubic yards taken and he has now switched to weighing tons removed. “This won't happen again,” he promised, “and we will be doing an inventory every two weeks.”
The committee complimented him for bringing this information out in the open.
