Residents of Pulaski County Road 700 South say they’re tired of living on a gravel road.
During Monday’s county commissioners meeting, resident George Seabolt presented a petition on behalf of several local residents, urging the county to pave the two-mile stretch of road between State Road 39 and County Road 1100 West. “There’s nine residents on it,” he said. “And some of them are old, and they don’t need the dust.” He added the dust has forced some elderly residents to keep their doors and windows closed during the summer.
Highway Superintendent Terry Ruff said that paving would cost over $45,000 per mile, money the county doesn’t have. On top of that, Commissioner Kenny Becker says that asphalt would need to be maintained once it’s installed. “Years ago, if we’d have had more blacktops, we wouldn’t be getting nothing because it costs so much to do them,” he said. “We’d like everybody to have a blacktop, but you’ve got Carroll County down there now that is starting to grind their blacktops up and turn them back into gravel because they can’t afford to maintain it. I know that was gravel when you moved on there.”
County officials wouldn’t make any commitments regarding that stretch of road. However, they said something might be able to be done, should the county get some extra funding, such as a Community Crossings matching grant. Cutting down the paving to one mile was also discussed as a possible compromise.
In other business Monday, the board of finance selected First National Bank of Monterey for Pulaski County’s cash management banking in 2017-2018.
