By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
There was good news for Carter County’s commuters at Monday night’s fiscal court, with an announcement from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KTC) that the county will see just over $1,562,000 in rural and secondary road flex funding through the cabinet. That comes on top of $211,000 left over from last year, bringing the total available for investment in roads passing through the county to $1,773,000 KTC’s Brandon Howe told the court.
More than $900,000 of that money will be made available for use on county roads, Howe said, while another $600,000 plus will be used on state routes, with some remainder used for administrative costs at the state garage.
How the county will use the funds available for county roads is still to be determined, Howe said the state already has plans for where they will be focusing their repaving efforts, including US 60 from Raider Mart through Grayson, and on Garvin Ridge.
The court, operating with a quorum of three magistrates and a judge, moved unanimously to accept the KTC recommendations and to approve the flex fund disbursement.
During his report, county road department head Jason Carroll advised the court to begin making their decisions on what areas to target with resurfacing as soon as possible.
Carroll told the court his department would need to know where the flex funds will be used as soon as possible because they will need to have ditching, pipe replacement, and other preparatory work done along those routes before the paving begins. Carroll noted, for instance, that any pipe currently laying under the roads that isn’t expected to last at least ten more years should be replaced prior to the repaving to avoid a need to dig the blacktop up later.
“We need to get on this as quick as possible,” he told the court.
In other action the court heard from FIVCO’s Eric Patton on reapportionment. Patton explained that he was there from FIVCO to offer advice on the process, which law requires be done to balance the population – not the voters – of each magisterial district in the year following a census.
The court also moved to approve the fair housing resolution, and to approve a resolution naming the county as a pass-through for a community development block grant awarded to the Rattlesnake Ridge Water District.
The court also moved to approve the county road aid resolution, accept the sheriff’s quarterly report, approve claims and transfers, and discussed appointments to the redistricting board. Judge executive Brandon Burton told the court he’d like at least four names to choose from, from both ends of the county.
In department reports the court heard from jailer R.W. Boggs on the jail’s federal inmate rate increase (see story in this issue), with Boggs adding they were looking at the possibility of using some federal inmates for trustee duties. Currently only local and some state inmates qualify for that work program.
Ambulance service executive director Rick Loperfido gave an update on his work, including requests for ambulances on standby motorsport events and the limited staff available to provide that service. Loperfido also noted that the ambulance service will be participating, along with fire and law enforcement, in a mock tragedy event at East Carter High School before prom season.
Adam Stapleton gave an update on E911 and Emergency Management, noting that it’s been a busy month.
“We’ve had a couple of search and rescues that turned out good,” Stapleton told the court, noting in each case everyone was located. He also reported on upcoming state mandated training in Frankfort and a $2,600 grant received from Marathon for communication equipment.
In other road department news Carroll noted that his department laid 178.5 tons of pothole mix during the month of March, in addition to ditching and grading more than 23 miles of roadway for each, replacing more than 50 damaged or stolen road signs, and laying more than 200,000 tons of
gravel and stone, including stone used in slip and roadway repairs.
The court also discussed the removal of a portion of Railroad Bed Road from the county road system and, following executive session, moved to rescind their previous motion to hire two part-time employees for the animal shelter. Instead, they moved to hire Paige Lunsford as a full-time employee instead of a part time employee, and moved to hire Marissa Rayburn as a part-time employee at the shelter.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com