Fiscal Court Looks At Repaving Section Of Gell Lane In Salvisa
No Change In County Tax Rates
Image: BizLawLLC via Wikimedia Commons.
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
rmoore@harrodsburgherald.com
The Mercer County Fiscal Court is looking into repaving a section of Gill Lane in Salvisa after residents complained. At their regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 8, the fiscal court voted to get a bid from Mago Construction Company, with whom the county has a contract, to repave a section of Gell Lane that’s about 800 foot long.
“I don’t know why that broke down in that area,” said Magistrate Tim Darland, who brought the resident’s complaint before the court and passed out photographs of the section of road. It’s estimated it would cost up to $20,000 to make the repairs.
Road Supervisor Todd Palmer said they’ve had the section of Gell Lane on the list for two years but state has not approved repairing it. Mercer County has approximately 280 miles of county roads, and has not received any discretionary funding for two years, according to Judge-Executive Sarah Steele. Steele said the county has never used general funding for roads, but they are working on finding alternative sources of funding.
Magistrate Susan Barrington said she’s received complaints about Normans Camp Road. Barrington said the road is highly traveled even though it’s a narrow road with hairpin curves.
“The surface is in really bad shape,” Barrington said. She said the whole road is not bad but there is one bad area.
Other residents complained about the speed limit on Normans Camp.
“It’s ridiculous to think people are allowed to drive 55 miles per hour,” Barrington said. She said out of town visitors pulling trailers disregard the speed limit. Barrington said the speed limit needs to be addressed.
Mercer Sheriff Ernie Kelty said people complain about other local roads, including Paradise Camp and New and Old Dixville Roads. Kelty said the speed limits needs to be lowered on narrow roads without a center line. Unless otherwise posted, the speed limit on streets that are not designated highways, freeways or subdivision roads is 55 miles per hour. The sheriff said on some of Mercer’s county roads, the speed limit should be lowered to 35 MPH.
“We get the same complaints on Bohon, on Kirkwood, on Old Louisville Road,” Kelty said.
Steele said they are looking at what they can do with lowering the speed limit on certain roads by ordinance. At the last fiscal court meeting, Ken Harper, who lives on Bellows Mill Road, asked the county to install speed limit signs on the road.
While the sheriff was in favor of lowering speed limits, he also said it was difficult for his office to enforce those limits. “In a lot of cases, we only have one deputy working, and we have 22,000 people in this county,” Kelty said. “We do the best that we can.”
“I patrol those roads we’re talking about as often as I can,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many times that sheriff’s truck has been run off the road. It is a problem.”
Kelty thanked everyone for their cooperation during last week’s yard sale. He said there were no accidents.
“We made it through the 127 yard sale,” the sheriff said. “We were very strict about parking. We were very strict about the speed limit.”
The sheriff’s office put up signs in the median strip and NWK Construction Incorporated in Harrodsburg voluntarily put out digital signs.
“A lot of folks put in a lot of time out there,” Kelty said. “We didn’t have one wreck and one person hurt.”
Towards the end of the meeting, residents from Salvisa complained about fallen trees and storm debris. Judge Steele said county road crews would go out to take a look.
Tax Rate
After a tax hearing in which no one spoke, the fiscal court voted to keep the same tax rates as last year. They voted to keep the tax for real property at 12.6, the tax for personal property at 18.31 and the tax for motor vehicles and watercraft at 9.2. The tax rates produced revenue of more than $1.9 million last year and is calculated to produce more than $2 million this year.
The fiscal court received word that the Mercer County Cooperative Extension Service will keep their tax rates from last year unchanged at 4.2 for real property, 7.77 for personal property and 1.20 for motor vehicles.
