County to pay for towns’ road assessments

By: 
Becky Killian, Staff Writer

The county will pay an estimated $1,200 to complete an assessment of roads located within the county’s towns.

The decision came during the Monday, March 5, meeting of the Washington County Council.

The vote came on the heels of a special meeting held Thursday, March 1, that was attended by the county’s council, commissioners, and representatives of towns including Campbellsburg, Hardinsburg, Little York, and Livonia.

The special meeting was called after Washington County Highway Superintendent Rick Voyles discovered that the county has been paying to maintain about 11 miles of roads located within incorporated areas of the county. Grant money from the state could be available to help pay for road maintenance but town officials either aren’t applying for the grants or some towns have no officials to complete the application process.

Voyles said the county isn’t supposed to use its own grant funds to pay for the upkeep of roads in incorporated areas. Also, his department frequently handles complaints about the condition of town roads since residents aren’t always sure where the boundaries are located.

The first step in seeking grant money is to have a road assessment completed. The county is due to have an assessment completed again since they must be completed every two years. It was proposed during the special meeting that the county could include the towns’ roads in that assessment as a first step toward helping those municipalities to get grant money.

During the March 1st meeting, councilman David Hoar called the inclusion of the towns’ roads in the assessment a “no brainer.” He made a motion for the county to cover the cost. That motion was tabled until the March 5th meeting during which a vote was taken with unanimous support.

Of the county’s six incorporated towns, Pekin and Campbellsburg have street departments. Dave Brown was among the representatives from Campbellsburg. He said that town has had the road assessment completed and they applied for grant money. As a result, the town now has a total of $320,000 for a road project currently underway with a local investment of $110,000.

 

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