DOUBLE SPRINGS - A resident concerned about deteriorating road conditions approached the Winston County Commission at a recent meeting, seeking answers by suggesting a group be formed to look into the issues, instead of deferring maintenance by “kicking it down the road.”
Scott Watson, who is concerned about the condition of County Road 3973 south of Arley, addressed Commission Chairman David Cummings and district commissioners Rutger Hyche and Roger Hayes with a question about finances in regard to needed road repairs.
“We’re at a point right now where deferred maintenance is going to become something we cannot recover from,” Watson began.
Watson told commissioners that in his experience, universities continue to defer maintenance, “kicking it down the road,” he said.
“Another month, another year, another decade,” Watson continued. “Suddenly, these numbers are ridiculously large and there is not much that can be done about it.
“Today, my mission is not to complain,” Watson said, “but, maybe we can work together to find a solution.
“I have no idea if the county has put together a group to really look at the road conditions, comprised of all the county leaders, including law enforcement, administration and yourselves, to really examine this. Maybe go after federal and state funds meaningfully with a plan, perhaps engaging a consultant to put that together,” Watson suggested.
“Other counties in Alabama have done that,” he added. “Populated counties like Jefferson and Shelby and so forth, no problem. They’ve got meaningful representation in Montgomery and in (Washington) D.C., so they get some attention.
“However, they also have a huge tax base,” Watson continued. “What do we have now, 27,000 residents in this county?”
County officials responded that Winston County’s population was around 24,000.
“You know as well as I do what the issues are,” Watson addressed the commission. “We’re moving into public safety hazards at this point in time.”
Watson cited a specific reference in which a law enforcement officer, responding to the area where Watson lives, blew out tires on his vehicle due to the hazardous road conditions while on an emergency call.
“That is not serving the residents,” Watson pointed out.
“I would like to take responsibility to help you spearhead something meaningfully, if it hasn’t been done, not just be here to complain. Maybe solicit, recruit some residents of the county, to aid in that.
“Maybe it’s a committee you form, a subcommittee, however you want to characterize it. The lack of attention is not going to solve the problem. Frankly, it is accelerating each and every day,” Watson further emphasized.
“We need to try to come up with a solution and not just to wish it away,” Watson pointed out.
“I am a consultant. I serve various industries. I don’t know what the county budget looks like, but I am going to leave with a hand on the budget before I depart the building today because I would love to look through that.
“I know we’re not swimming in money,” Watson continued, “but we must take action. Remaining static, doing nothing, is a recipe for problems. They are only going to get worse.
“I’ll help, not just complain,” Watson said. “There is no doubt in my mind that you have been on the receiving end of a boat load of this stuff.
“Maybe collaboratively with your residents and the commission itself, we can get something moving,” Watson said. “We’ve got to take some steps that have not been explored before.”
“Thank you for your input,” Cummings responded. “After the meeting, we can get with our engineer and discuss it a little further.”
“May I ask a question?” Watson then said.
“Yes,” Cummings responded.
“Has there been any formal formation of a group basically to explore federal grants? A lot of counties that are similarly struggling have secured those grants.
“Has this county taken any meaningful initiatives to secure those?” Watson asked commissioners.
“Yes sir, I can say that we absolutely have,” responded Hyche. “We have gotten federal earmarks from Congressman (Robert) Aderholt’s office for around $1.5 (million), $1.9 (million). We have some more federal exchange/state funding that’s combined, that we’re looking at close to $4 million as well.
“We’ve been able to get all the cities to apply for Rebuild Alabama annual grants,” Hyche continued. “Lynn was just awarded one. Addison just got awarded one. Double Springs and Arley still have theirs out. They are applying for county-maintained roads within the city limits.
“We have received more federal and state funding in the past four years than has probably been in the last 20,” Hyche continued.
“It’s hard to explain to people that those funds are allocated to certain projects,” he added. “Those funds aren’t available for these roads leading into (Smith) Lake.
“I live on one, as well. (Roger) has a road that leads down to the lake. His is bad. Mine is terrible,” Hyche continued. “We just can’t allocate those federal and state funds to dead-end roads out on the lake.”
“It has to be low-mod,” Hayes added. “It has to be within a certain price range of the house.”
Hayes added he was able to secure a Community Development Block Grant for a subdivision road, but the grant requirement was that the area was low to moderate income.
“A lot of the federal and state money, they won’t even look at you if it’s not low-mod,” Hayes added.
“We have at least four big roads that we have been spending money on maintenance over the last four or five years,” Cummings said.
“These are more highly traveled roads than yours,” Cummings added.
Cummings further addressed Watson, adding, “I was on the road you were talking about (recently) delivering garbage cans. I know exactly what road you are talking about. To you, it is just as important as a main traveled road because you live on it.
“Our main, high-priority traveled roads like the ones we’ve put in (funding) for, we’re going to get some money to repair these roads. The money we’ve been putting in to repairing these roads, we’re going to be able to use it to repair roads like yours,” Cummings continued.
Cummings assured Watson they do have a future plan.
“The only way we will get some of these secondary roads repaired, is get some relief on the major roads that the federal and state will help us with because they are not going to help us with your road,” Cummings told Watson.
“If it flows, it’s going to flow down to our road. Got it. We completely understand that,” Watson responded.
“Could you be more effective? Is there a road inventory that’s been conducted by the county?” Watson then asked.
Hyche responded, “We implemented a system three years ago shortly after coming into office. We have a database where we can pull up every work order that has come in.”
Hyche added that county officials have to prioritize. “That’s how we have to base where we’re going,” he said.
Hyche noted that county roads 3973 (the road to which Watson was referring), 283 and 287 are in line to be patched.
“Is it going to be a permanent fix? Absolutely not,” he said. “But we know that once we go down in that area, that’s where we are going to be for a while.”
Hyche explained that recent excessive rainfall has caused more problems with potholes.
“We’re trying to get some of our heavier traffic roads patched up,” he said.
Cummings told Watson he appreciated him coming to the meeting and he was welcome to discuss the matter with the road engineer more after the meeting.
Among other business, the commission voted to move the polling site for Ashridge from the fire station to the newly constructed community center building just off Highway 195 on County Road 107.
“They are thankful it is going to be moved,” noted Elections Manager Sheila Moore from the audience. “It will be a lot better off for everybody.”
“I think it will, as well,” Cummings added.
See complete story in the Northwest Alabamian.
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