County Road Dept. Gives Update After Snow Event

The McCracken County Road Department gave elected officials an overview of their work load during the recent snowfall.

At Monday night's Fiscal Court meeting, Randy Williams of the Road Department said his crew, "worked their tails off," while having to deal with major mechanical problems.

Four of the twelve trucks had trouble, and for most of last week, three were out of service at the same time. Two had problems related to diesel emissions control, one had a bad clutch, and another had clutch and transmission problems. They had some other minor problems like blown hydraulic hoses, too.

Williams expressed appreciation to residents for their understanding and cooperation as the trucks plowed county roads, but mentioned one issue his drivers had.

"Plows cannot get down the road if cars are parked in it. We can't take a chance of hitting the cars. I understand that people have steep driveways and they were probably afraid that they couldn't be able to get get out, but it prevented us from being able to get in and work the area like we needed to," Williams said.

He said since many folks don't know the difference between state and county roads, the county always gets calls about some state roads that haven't yet been plowed. He said they investigate each call, though, just to be sure.

Williams said the county used two-thirds of their 1,000-ton supply of salt. He said the total cost of salt, labor, and other expenses is about $150,000. 

He said his crew moved their work schedules around to try to get the maximum benefit of sunshine on days when temperatures were too cold to allow salt and chemicals to melt the ice and snow. 

Williams said the next logical problem will be repair of potholes, and he encouraged commissioners to pass along any information to him if citizens notify them of pavement problems.

Each member of the Fiscal Court asked Williams to tell his employees how grateful they were for their non-stop work.