Precinct 1 Commissioner Robert Vincent will not pave any more road this year, as the Lampasas County Commissioners Court will delay the purchase of an asphalt distributor.

Although the court's tentative 2009-10 budget includes $170,000 for a possible distributor purchase, commissioners decided last week not to order new equipment for spraying asphalt until the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

"With all the tightening, all the work and all the efforts we made to balance this budget, it's going to be a hard sell at this time," Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack B. Cox said of a distributor. "We're operating on a shoestring."

Vincent's motion to buy a truck and a 3,000- gallon distributor -- which the commissioner said would save the county time and money by decreasing "merge" charges during paving -- died for lack of a second.

As a result, if the Commissioners Court approves a distributor purchase early in the new fiscal year, the unit likely will arrive in 2010. Commissioners noted that paving typically does not begin until the late spring or early summer.

Because of mechanical problems with its distributor, the county has been paving this year with a 1,000- gallon unit owned by the city of Lampasas.

Although commissioners said they appreciate Lampasas' willingness to help, Vincent said he will not use the city's distributor for the three miles of road he had hoped to finish this year. Instead, the commissioner will wait until the county acquires equipment of its own.

The 3,000-gallon unit Vincent proposed buying would have cost about $177,000. Vincent also mentioned a 2,000-gallon distributor that would have cost about $138,000, including the cost of an automatic transmission truck on which to mount the asphalt sprayer.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Alex Wittenburg and Precinct 3 Commissioner Lowell Ivey said a 2,000-gallon distributor would meet the county's needs.

Vincent, however, believes the county needs a larger distributor in order to pave county roadways adequately. Large equipment is important, he said, because county regulations require new subdivisions to incorporate at least 24- foot-wide roads.

Some new roads are as wide as 32 feet, Vincent said.

"What's this county going to be like in 15 to 20 years?" the commissioner asked. "Don't think about today. Think about tomorrow."