County votes to repave one mile of County Road 40
Repaving County Road 40 has quickly become a priority for the county commission
By Alison James
alison.james@franklincountytimes
It was $35K the county wasn’t planning to spend.
County engineer David Palmer brought to the county commission’s attention the deteriorating situation on County Road 40 off Highway 75 near Phil Campbell. The road has been in need of attention for some time.
“That road’s gotten in real dangerous condition,” Palmer said. “In one place, we’ve lost about two-thirds of the road … We need to do something.”
The road sees a load of 400-500 vehicles plus trucks per day.
Palmer and the commission tossed around a few ideas for addressing the issue in a cost-effective way, including fixing only a portion of the road, but “I’d hate to go out there and only do half a mile,” Commissioner Wyman Pounders said.
With the base of the road in good shape, Palmer recommended repaving the road as opposed to trying a chip seal approach or doing any sort of full depth reclamation.
“We’ve been trying to get somebody out there all year long, but the contractors are so tied up we can’t get anybody out there,” Palmer said. But since equipment is already out site out that way, the time is ideal to have the project completed.
The county agreed to repave the road. The not-to-exceed-$70K project will be funded split evenly between the highway department and the county’s public building fund.
“Really and truly I think that would be good money invested,” said Commissioner Rayburn Massey.
The county also:
– accepted termination of David Smith in the sheriff’s office
– accepted resignation of Scott Collum in the sheriff’s office
– approved two new hires in the sheriff’s office
– declared a 2000 Dodge Charger surplus property and will accept sealed bids
– approved two new hires in the solid waste department.
– approved ATRIP invoices
– approved the purchase or bids for several pieces of equipment for the highway department
– declared several pieces of equipment surplus property in the highway department
– accepted a resignation in the probate office
– reappointed Harlan Hutcheson, Rebecca Massey and Jerry Groce to NACOLG
