Holliday pays tribute to friend and AEP worker

County Road 128 will be closed for a bridge replacement project, Lawrence County Engineer Patrick Leighty has advised.

Assistant county administrator Katrina Keith read the announcement during Thursday’s meeting of the Lawrence County Commission.

“It will be closed 0.8 miles from U.S. 52, starting Monday, July 11, through July 18,” Keith said. ‘The detour will be Township Road 292, Winkler Road.”

The commission’s meeting this week was short, with no county officeholders present and the agenda being regular items.

Holliday closed the meeting by paying tribute to her friend, Gary “Todd” Blankenship, who died last week at age 57.

“We laid Todd to rest yesterday,” she said of Blankenship, who she called “a dear friend.”

She said those who lived in Lawrence County had their lives touched by Blankenship, who worked for decades as a lineman and supervisor for American Electric Power.

“He was a man called a best friend by hundreds in the county,” Holliday said, before asking everyone to remember his family in their prayers.

In other business, the commission:

• Approved the minutes of the meeting held on June 24, as corrected.

• Approved a floodplain permit, dated June 29, submitted by the Lawrence County Soil and Water Conservation District: New – 2022-793 Charles Gill Brace III-Stream maintenance project located at 4217 Co. Rd. 6

• Approved the appropriations and transfers dated July 7, submitted by the county administrator.

• Received and filed the Lawrence County Department of Job and Family Services Social Services data report, ending June 30.

• Met in executive session with Lisa Pine, Chris Kline and Keith, regarding personnel, hire, fire, or reprimand.