by Matt Hughes
J-E News Editor
On Monday the Webster County Fiscal Court reviewed bids for work on the Blackford Bridge, hoping to bring to an end an ongoing problem that dates back to October of 2003.
That was when the county initially signed agreements with Intech Contracting, LLC of Lexington, Tetra Tech, Inc of Louisville. In 2009 the county filed a law suit against these companies after the bridge began to deteriorate. That suit was finally settled for $160,000 in December.
Only one bid was made for materials, including the three inch thick wooden deck plates that will serve as the bridge’s surface. The court accepted a bid from Timber Bridges of Kentucky (based in Vicksburg, Mississippi) for $221,085. The materials will arrive in 10-14 weeks.
The county also received three bids for demolition of the bridge’s old surface and railing. Brown Construction of Marion, KY entered the lowest bid in the amount of $12,000, L.T. Black Construction of Bardwell, KY was second highest at $18,250 and Knight’s Construction and Excavating of Slaughters entered a drastically higher bid of $149,970.
L.T. Black also entered a bid of $30,000 for construction, but since the county’s advertisement had only been for demolition, the court could not accept the bid at this time.
County Road Foreman Rob Mooney said that L.T. Black Construction had entered the bid only because they felt that it would be necessary for whoever did the construction to also do the demolition so that the bridge could be completed in phases.
Judge Jim Townsend pointed out that the Smith-Brantley Bridge was an L.T. Black bridge.
After some discussion the magistrates decided that the best course of action would be to rebid, accepting only bids for both demolition and construction.
In other business, the court heard from local resident Preston Hunt, who owns property adjacent to the proposed location of the new Webster County Dog Pound.
“The kennel is supposed to be a nice, new facility that doesn’t effect anybody,” Hunt said. “It effects me. It’s going to effect my well being and my property value. I feel there are better locations you can build other than right in my front door.”
Hunt offered to either buy the current property from the county, or trade them a comparable piece of property on the opposite side of his land, away from his house. This property is located across Highway 630 from Webster County Solid Waste.
Magistrate Tony Felker was concerned that the property in question was further from the main road than their current location. This could increase the cost of building the facility.
“It’s going to be a long way down there,” Felker told Hunt. “A long way to run power and water, and a long road to maintain.”
The court was, however, in agreement that they should look into other options. The magistrates agreed to look at the location Hunt was going to trade, and Felker even offered to transport him to the Caldwell County facility the court is using as a basis for their new facility so that he could better determine how the structure would affect him.
In the end the court voted to advertise their interest in other possible locations to see if any Webster County property owners might have an alternative.
Finally, the court voted to accept a list of prioritized items Judge Townsend had submitted to them. Every year the county receives coal severance tax dollars that are spent on improvements of roadways and services in Webster County. In recent years the amount of those tax dollars has been drastically decreasing, leading the state to request all items to be prioritized.
Judge Townsend pointed out that last year, before the coal counties’ amounts was figured, the state took several large chunks out of the total. $250 million went to do a study on how Rupp Arena could be improved. (Rupp Arena is located in Fayette County, which is not a coal producing county and not eligible for coal severance funds.) Another $19 million went towards workers compensation.
Some items on the approved list for the 2013-2014 year are:
1. Blackford Bridge ($400,000)
2. County Projects ($450,000)
3. County Road Improvements ($250,000)
5. Clay Sewer Improvements ($125,000)
8. Providence Debt Service ($200,000)
Other Business
•The Court proclaimed the week of September 17-23, 2013 as Constitution Week in Webster County.
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