Road ravaged by recent rains

The county has gotten some financial help to repair recent road damage that followed heavy storms earlier in the month.

At its Thursday meeting the county commission approved accepting emergency funding from the Ohio Public Works Commission to repair the landslide on County Road 6.

The funding, which comes through the OPWC’s emergency program, totals $300,180. It will be used to repair a 550-foot section of roadway.

“At County Road 6, basically the road has split and dropped,” Commission President Les Boggs said.

County Engineer Doug Cade submitted three projects to get a piece of the $1.5 million available annually from the state for emergency funding. Those projects were County Road 6, County Road 62, which is closed, and County Road 7A or Willis Road.

Only County Road 6 was approved.

“Part of the reason is that it is a bypass route for State Route 141,” Cade said. “State Route 141 is partially closed due to a landslide. ODOT is working on a solution there. (The approval is) because of the potential of having two roads closed in that area.”

The entire project, which will require driving piling and reconstructing the road, will cost $707,000. The remaining funds will come from the engineer’s budget.

Also with crews from the county engineer’s office focusing on the more than 60 landslides that resulted from the storms, Boggs said the county may boost the engineer’s budget one time to pay for overtime work to handle basic road maintenance.

“With the slips we know of and bridges that have to be replaced, Commissioner Pratt and I have discussing having to kick in because we might need some overtime to run weekend crews to patch potholes,” Boggs said.

Commissioner Paul Herrell was absent from the meeting because of illness.

Commissioners also approved renewing a sub grant agreement for the Department of Job and Family Services that provides a stream of funding to the Workforce Investment Act program. That pays for such employment programs as retraining workers who are laid off, and providing summer jobs for teens.

In other business the commission:

• Approved a request for the county engineer to auction equipment including a 1996 Chevy pickup truck, a 1999 Jeep Cherokee, 1990 semi tractor, 1979 Benson dump trailer, 1988 grader and 1999 Massey Ferguson tractor;

• Approved a juvenile court grant agreement;

• Received the weekly dog warden report where 47 dogs were destroyed; none were redeemed and none were sold. There were 101 dogs in custody.