Skagit County Public Works should see that the bad paving job on La Conner-Whitney Road is reworked at no additional cost to taxpayers. The company’s offer to grind down some of the bumps in the road may or may not be enough.

As one of the state’s largest paving contractors and the recipient of hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local contracts, Lakeside Industries officials should surely know their stuff.

But the $215,000 paving job completed a month ago left car-jolting bumps in the roadway from the La Conner roundabout to McLean Road. The bumps should have been removed before the crews packed up and headed home.

Almost immediately, the phone calls began coming to Public Works from angry motorists.

It is no excuse that the paving job was done with a tar-gravel mix called micro-seal — a grade better than the chip seal often used on lesser-traveled rural roads but not as substantial as asphalt.

The bumps were caused when trucks dumping material would overlap previously laid strips of micro-seal. That is understandable, but surely it is not a new problem for experienced road crews.

It is true that the company has offered to return and “grind down the worst eight or 10 joints” at no extra cost to the county. That could be a start. But the county should insist that the work reflect the proper standards for a micro-seal job — at no additional cost to the taxpayer.

It is important that La Conner-Whitney Road be kept in good condition. It is a major transportation artery for agriculture as well as the county’s spring-to-autumn tourism, also a mainstay of the local economy.

And many motorists found that the road was even less smooth to ride on than before the micro-seal job.

Although the county is due some criticism for its initial acceptance of the inadequate road work, officials are to be commended for responding to motorists’ complaints and addressing the problem.

After the first bad job, the county should now make sure that the repair work actually fixes the problem.

• Editorials reflect the consensus opinion of the editorial board and are written by its members: Publisher L. Stedem Wood, Editor Don Nelson and City Editor Dick Clever. Signed columns reflect the authors’ viewpoints.