Meetings with FEMA officials about federal funding for repairs to Lower Bottom Road are scheduled to take place later this week.
However, Cole County Public Works Director Larry Benz said they can't give a time table yet on repairs, but a dry fall and winter would help.
"If we got started in the near future, we could be done by the end of the year, but the weather could push it to next year," he said at Tuesday's County Commission meeting.
On July 6, the public works department announced part of Lower Bottom was closed due to a road slide, affecting addresses from 11923 to 12217.
Public works officials said the ground was super saturated by heavy rains in June and cracks continued to get bigger.
Later that month, the County Commission awarded a $48,700 contract to GREDELL Engineering Resources, Inc., to investigate the geotechnical elements below the approximately 200-by-250-square foot area of the road that was affected. The contract included completing design for repairs, which will be finished by the county if feasible, or contracted out if more substantial.
In August, the county got word it would have the opportunity to receive federal disaster aid to help in recovery efforts following the severe storms.
The county met the minimum damage costs of $286,000 to qualify for aid.
Benz said it's estimated the repairs to Lower Bottom will cost between $400,000 to $500,000. FEMA funds could pay for 75 percent of that amount and the county would have to pay the remaining 25 percent.
"That seems like an astronomical amount for a little county road," said Doug Otto who lives in the Lower Bottom Road area. "There's a lot of people that would be fine if this was just put back to gravel. I don't fault the county at all. We've been patient. It just seems like if it wasn't having to wait on FEMA we could have had this fixed. We just want to get the road re-opened because it is dangerous to run farm equipment on Route B instead of going on Lower Bottom."
"If we just put more material on this it'd be like putting a band aid on to fix the problem," Benz said. "We don't want have to come back and have to fix something six months later. We want a long-term fix."
Benz said they want to stabilize the road, which would mean using limestone. The best limestone is hard to find south of the Osage River, which means possibly trucking in the material if they can't find enough to work with in the area nearby the road.
Other county roads were damaged by flooding, but only Meadows Ford and North Branch Road are left to be fixed, according to Benz, and the county will be doing that with county staff stabilizing banks along the affected areas.