Supervisors OK emergency road repair

The Franklin County Board of Supervisors opened quotes for emergency repairs to Bill Lofton Road on Tuesday, Feb. 21 during the panel’s business meeting.
A portion along the side of the aforementioned road washed out during a significant rain event about seven weeks prior to Tuesday’s meeting.

In February, District 4 Supervisor Pat Larkin and county engineer Mike McKenzie discussed the matter and said another 8- to 10-inch rainfall event could take out half of the road, with McKenzie advising the panel to temporarily patch the washout area with rip rap.
Quotes were obtained from three companies — Dozer Inc., Midway Construction and Riverside Construction Co. Inc. — to do the temporary repair work.
Midway Construction was hired for the project as the firm submitted the lowest quote at $30,906.
Dozer Inc., and Riverside Construction Co. Inc., priced the job at $58,578.75 and $35,715, respectively.

“We’re going to put enough rip rap there to keep it from moving,” McKenzie said.
“But, we will continue ahead with the (Office of State Aid Road Construction) project that would move the (waterway) channel over to where it needs to be and get it lined up, which will entail picking all that rip rap up that we’re fixing to in put and moving it to where we need it.

“It’s going to look to your standard passerby that we don’t know what we’re doing, but we’ve got to make it safe, and then we’ll make it right later.”

Also at the meeting, county leaders heard from board attorney Bill Halford regarding the abandonment of a portion of roadway in Eddiceton — known as Montgomery Street according to county maps — as well as a piece of property labeled as an alley, also in Eddiceton.
“As y’all know, in all these little towns — Meadville, Bude and Roxie of course, but (also) in Garden City, Knoxville, Eddiceton and McCall Creek — you’ve got streets and alleys, and people build out in those because they don’t know that they’re streets, but they are platted out just like Meadville is,” Halford said.

He explained an individual in Eddiceton was assessed with the street and alley on her property taxes, and went on to say that the street in question is covered in grass and the alley is located in a pond.

The board passed a resolution to abandon those portions of the alley and Montgomery Street.

In other action, the board took up these items of business:
• Heard from Hilda Peeler, who serves as District 2 election commissioner.

Peeler thanked the board for taking action on the Extension Service office building repairs and said the commissioners — who share a portion of that same structure — are happy with the work being done to repair damage caused by previous roof leaks.

• Considered making a driveway off Schmidt Road into a public road. District 3 Supervisor Mike “Dirt” Hunt explained there are several homes located along the drive in question and the residents are wanting it to become a county-maintained road so the school bus would be able to go down it.
After some discussion about the best way to go about it, the panel decided to ask the school board to send them a request to place a school bus turnaround there, as that would be cheaper and more time-efficient.

• Heard from McKenzie that another round of Emergency Road and Bridge Repair funding could potentially be available.

• Voted to purchase a security camera system for the courthouse in the amount of $6,848 from Ole Brook Fire and Security LLC.
A quote was also received from Pro Tech Security for the same system, at a cost of $13,130.

The board’s next meeting is set for 9 a.m., Monday, March 6.