A Look Back at 2024

 Another year has come and gone. We have experienced heartache, joy, adversity, opportunity, disappointment and everything in between. It has been a busy year for local government, and we have accomplished a lot but still have a lot of goals to meet. We have been fortunate to be awarded some substantial funding for community development projects, clean water improvements, road improvements as well as grants we have been fortunate enough to receive. 
The biggest project we have in the makings comes from funding within the state budget. The community park development project that will be constructed on McCammon Ridge road within the city of Mckee is in the early stages of beginning. I have contacted a surveyor to get an accurate survey of the property. We have received the 4-million-dollar allotment from the state for this project and it has been deposited within the state grant account of the Fiscal Court. Once we obtain the survey, we will get a deed made and proceed with the purchase of the land. This project would not be possible without the input we received from the community as well as the hard work of our State Representative Timmy Truett, Senator Robert Stivers and the Fiscal Court. This type of project takes a supportive community to make it happen. 
 We were fortunate enough to resurface several roads this year. We put down about 1.5 million dollars' worth of asphalt on County roads. Over half of that is reimbursable and we have started the process of getting reimbursed for those funds. We have so many more roads we would like to improve, but will only be able to get to those as funds allow. I have already began submitting funding requests for next year and hope to see more state funding come in for County roads. 
The Big Hill welcome center project was one of the biggest grants we received this year. That project was funded through USDA and is highlighted as a community tourism-based project. The preservation of the existing building plus the additions to make it into a type of general store/informational spot for tourist visiting our County, has been proceeding nicely. We expect completion of the project within the next couple months. USDA is one of the biggest grant providers for local governments. We apply through them to help obtain police cruisers, ambulances as well as community facilities. We are grateful to have a good working relationship with them. 
The list of tasks for 2025 is growing for the Fiscal Court. We will be looking at how to adequately fund our 911 since CSEPP funds will be ending in June 2025. We are also approaching the end of the grant for the Justice Center. That will also place a big financial burden on the County. Big buildings are nice but they come with high maintenance costs. We have some very challenging decisions to make this coming year.