Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

Pinckney Community Schools were off again Thursday, largely due to icy dirt roads that made it too dangerous for buses or families to get kids to class.

"We've been blading them with graders and trucks, spreading sand, doing everything within our power to make the roads better. We get them scraped, it rains again, they freeze up again. We're out there again, hitting them to make them better," says Trevor Bennett, director of operations at the Livingston County Road Commission.

Bennett says limestone roads ice up more than gravel roads. He insists drivers have been working around the clock since Monday.

"Other school districts are calling us with multiple roads in the same condition, and we're getting calls from residents on why their district is open when another district is closed."

The road commission Thursday, paid a $250,000 salt bill to keep the barn filled. The agency budgeted $3 million for snow removal this season.

Bennett says that money comes from license plate renewals and the state gas tax, not your property taxes.

"We want the roads good just like they do," he says. "We haven't had freezing rain like this in over 20 years, talking with the guys."

"We had warm weather, then we had snow. Then it got cold and that turned it into hard pack. We had the hard pack so people could pass on the road, but as soon as you put water on top of it, temperatures rose and created an icy situation."

Submit a request to the Road Commission at the link below.