The Great Gravel Heist: Rocks being stolen from Seward County roads

SEWARD, Neb. — Officials are raising the alarm over a rocky situation.

People are stealing gravel and rocks from country roads in Seward County, leaving bumps and holes in the roads.

The county’s highway superintendent, Jon Regnier, said not having enough gravel on the roads can make the drive a lot harder.

“If it’s not there, they turn muddy,” he said. “So the traveling public has issues just navigating the roads once they turn muddy.”

The department serves about 930 miles of rural roads, and each mile takes 110 yards of gravel.

Regnier said when they aren’t properly covered, it can get in the way of commuters and their safety.

He estimated that Fletcher Road alone sees 400 vehicles a day.

“Probably one of the biggest things is emergency response,” he said. “With it being so close to Seward here, if our emergency response can’t get down the road, lives are at stake.”

Regnier said this isn’t the first time something like this has happened, and sometimes people don’t realize the impact.

“It’s tax dollars that help pay for that material, and essentially, they’re stealing from themselves or everybody else in the county,” he said. “We purchase so much throughout the year and put it out there. That just means we have to put more out again, so it’s just repeating the same process which we don’t want to do.”

He said officials don’t know who is stealing the gravel, but they are taking extra precautions to make sure it doesn’t continue.