Pottawatomie County found a solution to this problem by requiring residents to share the cost for dust treatment in front of their homes. Each spring the county takes applications from homeowners who would like to participate in the program. Application forms are provided by the county.
Residents pay about a third of the cost for the treatment.
Magnesium chloride is applied to the road usually in May or June, after the spring rains clear up. The county's dust control cost-share program has been in place for a decade, and it has been a big success. Once they get their road treated, they really like it. Most participants are individual homeowners, but in a few cases, households in entire subdivisions have banded together to share the dust control cost for their neighborhoods. The policy also states that surface maintenance will not normally be conducted on these sections of roads unless conditions warrant.