Staying Current: Why Highway Department Supervisors Must Embrace Lifelong Learning

April 27, 2025

Highway departments play a critical role in the safety, efficiency, and upkeep of our communities. But in too many cases, particularly in small towns, the methods used to maintain roads, drainage systems, signage, and other infrastructure have gone unchanged for decades. The phrase “we’ve always done it this way” still echoes through garages and town barns, often without anyone asking whether the old way is still the right way. This mindset can hold departments back. In an indu…continue

Why Municipalities Must Keep an Accurate Local Road Inventory

April 23, 2025

Every year, municipalities are required to submit updates to their local road inventory to the state - and for good reason. While it may feel like a mundane paperwork task, this inventory plays a vital role in everything from road funding to infrastructure planning, at both the state and federal level. Let’s break it down. Why Keep a Road Inventory? At its core, a road inventory is just a detailed record of every public road in a municipality; paved and unpaved, owned and maintained by the…continue

Stand Your Ground

April 16, 2025

Sure, we’re often told to “play nice” with the Town Board, keep things smooth, don’t make waves, go along to get along. After all, they do control the budget, and we get it: without funding, nothing gets done. But here’s the thing - highway superintendents aren’t elected just to keep the peace. We’re elected to take care of the roads, to keep our communities safe, and to make sure our infrastructure is sound and reliable. That means sometimes we have to …continue

Spend It Before You Lose It: Smart Ways Highway Departments Can Use Year-End Budget Funds

April 12, 2025

Each year, as your fiscal calendar’s winding down, and you’ve got a little bit of budget left over. While it might be tempting to sit on it or scramble to spend it last minute, there’s a smarter way to handle that year-end balance: use it to stock up on the essentials you know you’ll need next season. Because let’s be real—come spring, you’ll wish you had more cones, more signs, and way more drainage supplies. Here’s a casual guide to putting that …continue

Why Every Highway Department Needs an Asset Management System Like Roadwurx

April 3, 2025

Let’s be real for a second: running a highway department without some kind of organized system is like trying to fix a car without a toolbox. You can do it, but it’s going to be a whole lot harder than it needs to be—and you’re definitely going to lose track of where the 10mm socket went. Highway departments across the country manage a lot of stuff: roads, bridges, culverts, signs, ditches, guardrails, equipment, and a million little details in between. And for years, a l…continue