Prior Negligence Cited In Poor Road Conditions
District 4 Supervisor Tim ‘Booker (seated) explained to Larry Mills that it would take years to reverse the road neglect in District 4 he inherited after taking office in January.
WATER VALLEY – A resident of Lake Estates, a subdivision east of Oakland off of Hwy. 32, complained of poor road conditions during the “first Monday” supervisor meeting in Water Valley on Aug. 1.
Larry Mills told county officials that CR 295, which runs off of Hwy. 32 into the subdivision, along with other roads in the area are in desperate need of work.
“Some of the roads you can’t drive down,” Mills told supervisors. “I have been out there for 17 years and my roads have gone from bad to worse.
Board President Cayce Washington was first to speak, explaining that the roads are in District 4, and District 4 Supervisor Tim Booker inherited a lot of problems in his district when he took office in January.
“There is no way that I can turn around 20 years of neglect in seven months. I have made an effort to go out there whenever somebody calls me,” Booker explained.
“On all of the roads, water runs down the middle washing all of the gravel out of them,” Mills continued.
“Tim came into a terrible mess. His equipment is in disrepair, it is just what he inherited,” Washington explained, adding that he would not have a problem assisting Booker with his road crew from District 1 when they get caught up.
Booker also pointed to the width of the roads, and water lines and utility cables that run alongside the roads, making it difficult to cut ditches for the water to drain properly.
“What happens is somebody gets the great idea to go out and develop a plat of land. They are well intentioned, but when they get about 60 or 70 percent through with it, all of sudden everything goes away. Development stops and then it gets handed over to the county,” Washington explained about the roads in the subdivision.
He also said he would make a commitment to assist Booker with the roads.
“We want to take care of all the taypayers… there are five guys out there who want to do the right thing,” Washington also told Mills. Four of us have only been here since January and are catching up on some things, Washington also said about the group. Washington, District 5 Supervisor Gaylon Gray, District 2 Supervisor Ken Rogers and Booker were elected last year and started to work with the county in January.
“Unfortunately we don’t have resources to man up as strong as we probably need to. I think each of us could handle two or three more guys, and certainly more equipment,” Washington added.
Gray and McMinn both said they had been in the area recently and agreed the area needed work.
