Residents request Brookville Road repairs

The disrepair of Brookville Road?s seal coat west of Packwood Road was a hot topic at this morning?s Jefferson County Board of Supervisors meeting.

Residents complained about the hazardous number and size of potholes and requested the road be restored to its previous quality.

County engineer Tom Goff expressed plans to tear up the road this spring and try alternative stabilization techniques, such as fly ash. The effect would be similar to what has recently been done with Butternut Avenue.

?The cost of oil has tripled in the last five years,? Goff said. He estimated each mile of seal coat costs $40,000. To reseal each stretch every three to five years, Goff said the county would need an annual seal coat budget of $150,000 to $200,000.

The challenge, he said, is determining which seal coat roads to preserve and how. A number of counties are reverting to gravel roads because they can?t keep up with the expense of seal coat, Goff said.

Supervisor Dick Reed asked if the bridge on Brookville Road scheduled for replacement could be coupled with a project to redo the road. Because the bridge replacement is still several years off, Goff said Brookville Road would need maintenance in the meantime.

Abingdon resident Chris Estle-Tedrow said she drives Brookville Road every day ? unless she sometimes detours on 155th Street because ?the gravel is safer than the big potholes.?

?If something is not done, there won?t be any base left,? she said. ?It?s a highly traveled road, and there are safety issues.?

?It?s the county?s responsibility to maintain the roads,? Reed said. ?I?m not opposed to looking at bonding to make Brookville hard surface.?

Though the cost of a hard surface road is greater up front, Reed said there?s a potential to save over its 30-year lifespan.

Goff said Brookville Road does already meet several of the standards for paving.

?We?re a pay-as-you-go organization,? Goff said, explaining the county has typically been reluctant to borrow money for paving.

?Where do you begin and end bonding because they all need attention?? supervisor Steve Burgmeier asked, naming several other roads needing work.

He said bonding will be addressed with Goff during the upcoming budget meetings.

In other business, the board made plans to score the revised Master Matrix for KK Finisher Jan. 16.

Burgmeier said the Department of Natural Resources granted the hog confinement a 30-day extension. However, assistant county attorney Pat McAvan said the DNR had no record of receiving the county?s denial of the original matrix. Once that rejection is noted, KK Finisher may have to begin the application process for a construction permit again, he said.

Ryan Robertson has applied for a construction permit to expand KK Finisher at 1031 Quince Ave. in Penn Township by 1,200 head, bringing the total to 3,600 head.

Burgmeier said the DNR did receive the public comments from the local hearing and has taken some of them ?to heart,? especially those regarding the manure management plan.

McAvan lauded the public for keeping their arguments legally relevant during the hearing.