By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Grayson City Council held its regularly scheduled meeting last Tuesday, May 14, to conduct the business of the city and allow Grayson residents to address the council. One of the concerns brought before the council included an issue with a security light from one property causing difficulty for another resident. The council assured the resident that the situation would be looked into, and decided to look into whether there was a city ordinance in place that might cover the issue.
Another point of interest brought before the council was the possibility of adding adult exercise equipment to the sports park. Currently any equipment of that nature is only in the playground area that caters to adolescents.
Another issue brought before council was from the county library in the form of their regular request to match funds contributed by the county. Currently there is no tax base established to support the library (which has branches in both Olive Hill and Grayson), but it may be something that will be addressed in the future. Lack of a tax base increases the difficulty the library faces providing certain crucial services, not the least of which is the bookmobile which encourages reading to Carter County residents that have limited or no transportation. The library currently owns a bookmobile vehicle, but it needs repairs as well as employees to staff it.
In other action FIVCO submitted a list of streets they recommended be recognized as city streets, but the council moved to table that issue until further research could be completed to determine if these were in fact city streets instead of county roads. A vote on this is expected at the next scheduled meeting in June. Councilman Terry Stamper stated that it was a good idea to have a master document listing city streets, but reiterated that said document needed to be accurate.
Mayor Troy Combs also read a proclamation from the Kentucky Senate recognizing the Main Street Program for the work they do and their economic impact in the state.
Combs and council also discussed needed road repairs on CW Stevens Road. Combs explained that the county originally made the city aware of issues with insufficient culverts that he described as a “ticking timebomb.” The initial plan was to include those repairs in the next budget, but a sinkhole has already formed and caused the closing of one lane on the two-lane road, necessitating emergency repairs. Combs said that there was currently sufficient funds ($20,000) available for sidewalk projects and proposed the council approve using that money to repair the road. This would not affect the current sidewalk project the city has undertaken. The council voted to allow the sidewalk line item in the current budget to be used for road repair, citing that the CW Stevens repair was an emergency that would get worse if not remedied immediately.
A resolution was also read from the Land and Water Conservation Fund Grant stating that the City of Grayson agreed to hold in reserve matching funds (in this case $87,000) for a grant received to renovate recreational resources to provide for the health and well-being of the general public. The funds in question are not part of the city tax budget, but rather tourism, and will be part of the tourism 2026 budget.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
