Pleasant Plain Road guard rails ?dangerous?

Jefferson County Board of Supervisors approved purchasing a used tractor-trailer and a new lowboy trailer for the secondary roads department at today?s weekly meeting and discussed the guardrails installed along Pleasant Plain Road.

Last week, county engineer Scott Cline had brought a request to purchase a 1996 Freightliner with 841,000 miles for $26,900 for sale in Michigan. Delivery charges to Fairfield are an additional $645.

?Our mechanic wrote up the specifications and searched for a truck within a 200-mile radius,? Cline said today. ?No dealers around could meet all the specifications, so we went searching online. We found this one in Michigan that had what the department is looking for and priced what a new truck with our specs would be $105,000.

?The used truck does not come with any warranty, but the dealer has provided what work has been done on it.?

Supervisor Dick Reed last week had questioned the mileage on the 1996 truck.

?I?m very comfortable that our mechanic had input and wrote the specs,? said Reed today. ?At first the mileage concerned me but after researching this past week, that no longer worries me.?

Also last week, Cline and supervisors had discussed picking up the truck in Michigan and saving the delivery fee.

?If we go up there and inspect it, purchase the truck and drive it back, if we get 10 miles away and it breaks down, it?s our problem,? said Cline. ?If it?s delivered, it will get a pretty good shakedown on the trip, we?ll inspect it here before deciding to purchase it.?

The supervisors agreed to the purchase, contingent upon inspection, and delivery to Fairfield of the truck.

The supervisors also approved purchasing a new lowboy trailer, manufactured in Manchester for $52,000 to use with the tractor-trailer.

Supervisor Lee Dimmitt asked Cline if he?s had an opportunity to research what it would take to replace the guardrails installed along Pleasant Plain Road last year after road improvements were made. Cline has not.

?What?s a farmer supposed to do?? asked supervisor chairman Steve Burgmeier. ?Farm equipment traveling that road can?t give up half the roadway. There?s already been an accident.?

The guardrails installed along the road are steel cable strung from post to post, setting higher than older, more solid guardrails. The height of the cable doesn?t allow wider farm equipment to be able to move far enough to the right on the shoulder to clear at least half the roadway for passing traffic.

Dimmitt said it?s a farm-to-market road.

?It?s a county-created problem caused by the county accepting federal dollars for road improvement,? said Reed. ?I?m not an engineer, but to me, that road is more dangerous now than it was before. How do I know? I listen to people who drive it.?

Burgmeier said he?s had questions about whether farm equipment needs pilot cars with flashing lights when traveling Pleasant Plain Road.

?And who pays for pilot cars?? asked Dimmitt. ?Even with pilot cars, it doesn?t solve the problem of passing traffic coming upon farm equipment that cannot yield enough roadway to pass.?

In other county road news, Cline said the pre-construction meeting for the Salina Road project has taken place. Work should begin next week. The road will get patched, cracks filled and slurry-leveled, he said.

?We?re trying to extend the life of the road,? said Burgmeier.

?Have we also had some blow-ups in pavement?? asked Reed.

Cline said yes, and the reported spots are being scheduled for repair. The extreme hot weather has caused some pavement blow-ups on Brooksville Road, Packwood Road and in Lockridge.

Cline said vehicles in the engineering department received upgraded radios and a three-ton rated bridge on Pine Avenue has been replaced with large heavy culvert pipes so the creek can be driven over.

Burgmeier asked the board if it wanted to pay for a ?Y? sewer pipe connection to the Hamilton property in East Pleasant Plain. Burgmeier is Jefferson County?s representative to Regional Utility Services System, which has installed sewers in the rural community.

?The Hamilton property was not inhabited and didn?t seem likely to be inhabited in the future,? said Burgmeier. ?Now the owner wants to fix it up and be connected. The contractor is there in the area working, and can do it for $375. If it?s not done now, and a contractor has to come back in, it could cost $3,000.

?We didn?t get a signature from the property owner to skip that property.?

Jefferson County is not the manager of the sewer project, said Reed.

?I don?t see how the county is involved. To me, it sets a precedent. Paying a $375 bill isn?t the point. But it opens the door to have others come to us to write checks.?

The proposal for the county to pay the sewer connection was defeated on a 3-0 vote.