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Resident complains about condition of Good Hope Road Sonya Stallworth asked the Clarke County Commission for help Tuesday on maintaining the Good Hope Road. "My car has been shaken to pieces," she said. She was concerned whether the road department had enough employees to maintain county roads. She also asked about over $33,000 in miscellaneous funding in the county budget and how that had been used. County Engineer Sam Noble said Clarke County has 500 miles of dirt roads and 285 miles of paved roads. "We try to follow a routine," he said. "Each machine (operator) has a certain area that (they) try to maintain, but there are a lot of factors that affect that." Stallworth said she could understand the lack of funds for paving the road, but "we can't even get a good dirt road….We have all these trenches. The road is like a washboard. It's ridiculous that we should have to live like this in 2007. "…We need to talk to someone else that we can get some help from because we're not getting any help," she said. Stallworth also said it was a safety issue for kids riding the school bus. In addition, the road was so bad that when Stallworth's mother had a heart attack, she had to be brought out to meet the ambulance, she added. Commissioner Rhondel Rhone said he had contacted State Representative Thomas Jackson concerning funding for the road. Stallworth said she had a 2001 letter from Jackson, but recently could not get a call back from the representative. "We are all the time asking for monies for dirt roads," Rhone said. "…It's not like we haven't been trying, asking everybody we can get a dollar from." Rhone said the Legislature had considered a bill recently to allow counties to raise gas taxes to gain more money for roads but now was not a good time with recent increases in gas prices. Commissioner Elma Averett suggested that the county might want to go to a "pay as you go" system like Mobile County, where the citizens vote on ad valorem taxes to pay for improving a specific number of miles of roads. "We're going to have to do something in that order here in Clarke County," he said. "Put it on the ballot; let some people have some meetings in various locations….Let them understand, if you want to get these roads paved, the only way you're going to do it is have some way to raise revenue." Other business In other action from the June 26 meeting, the commission approved an agreement to purchase an acre-and-a half in the Family Circle community from the J.L. Bedsole Foundation for a proposed Clarke County Cluster Sewage System Project. This is a project that the Alabama Tombigbee Regional Commission Resource Conservation and Development has been working on for many years, County Attorney Bruce Wilson said at the Monday workshop. The price of the property is $500, and will be paid through a grant from ATRC. "The project is very needed," said Commission Chairman Hunt. + County Engineer Noble was given permission to hire two new Equipment Operator III's for the road department. + The commission approved a study of the intersection of Birch Road and Highway 84. Commissioner Rhone had asked for the study Monday due to the dangerous turning conditions. + Rachel Lindsey, Key Person with the 2006 United Way campaign, announced the county employees had exceeded their giving goal of $5,000. The total amount was $5,710. + A 50 cent-per-hour raise was approved for Will Ashcraft, an employee in the Appraising Department. Sheriff Bobby Moore also asked the commission Tuesday for raises in his department. + EMA Director Roy Waite announced that a Hurricane Workshop will be held at 6 p.m. on July 26 in the Clarke County Courthouse. + The bids for an air handler in the courthouse were rejected, and the specifications will be rebid with a July 9 deadline. + The commission tabled construction work for the county Board of Education building until the fiscal 2008 budget. + The current commission chairman and the incoming chairman will be appointed to the Economic Development Task Force.
+ The commission approved extending the Enterprise Zone to the North Clarke Industrial Park and the South Industrial Park.
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