Judge Gabbard Discusses Upcoming Road Projects

If you have travelled in the north end of the County lately you have probably noticed the work on US 421. The KY Transportation Cabinet has several projects lined up for US 421 in Jackson County within the 6-year road plan. We expect to see curve realignment in places, updated drainage and guard rails, safety assessments in various spots as well as resurfacing. 421 is one of the very main thoroughfares for Jackson County and the majority of our Citizens travel it daily. We have been lobbying for improvements on 421 for several years so we are pleased to see them beginning this road work. We have had several meetings on the pigeon roost area and looked at several different options for the proposed realignment there. This will bring traffic into Mckee more safely and will also improve travel for those that travel in and out of the County for work. Any road improvements in the County is a good thing for us and we are excited to see them coming to pass.

We have been in contact with our paving contractors about when to expect our county road work to begin. I am not sure how much resurfacing we will be able to do but are hopeful to get as much addressed as financially possible. We received estimates on 15 different roads which added up to around 17 miles. The estimate came in at 2.1 million. We only receive around 1.2 million per year in road funds which is allocated to run our entire road department operations. It has to maintain equipment, salaries, gravel and drainage tiles for roads, general road maintenance operations as well as any asphalt work we can afford to do. We have 475 plus miles of County road we maintain. This is one of the main reasons we can't afford to pave everything we would like to. Contractors should be here in the next few weeks to start on our work.

We will be accepting resumes for the Finance Officer position for the County in the next few weeks. I have had trouble defining what duties we expect from a finance officer. Amanda Holt, our late friend and coworker, did just about everything in my office. She was very reliable and had a wealth of knowledge. We must, however, post her position because we cannot operate efficiently without a finance officer. You can expect to see the job posting in the next couple of publications of the paper. We will begin interviews shortly after for qualified candidates.

Have a blessed week