Macon County resident James Dickens says he and several others are tired and exhausted from pleading with county officials over the harsh road conditions in their part of the county.
Macon County Road Supervisor Ben Cook agreed to meet with Dickens and his neighbors directly after last week’s county meeting.
“How do you determine which roads that you’re going to fix?” asked Dickens.
“There is a lot of things that determine that,” said Cook. “One thing is the number of houses on a given road. We have a lot more roads than just yours. We have 625-630 miles of roads in Macon County.”
Dickens asked, “You just got $300,000 dollars on top of what you already had, right?”
“That is correct,” answered Cook. “You all don’t understand how expensive it is for road upkeep and repair. That money goes quick.”
“In other words, as taxpayers, we just have to accept whatever you decide to be best?” asked Ricky Harp. “We all pay taxes, and we all deserve to have good roads to travel on. I know for a fact that your road graders don’t do any good down on Chigger Hollow Road. I see a lot of waste on your end. In over 25 years, your department has done nothing to fix the problems down there, and since you’ve taken over, still nothing.”
Cook responded, “Well, it is a gravel road, and we grade and gravel just like any other gravel road in Macon County. That $300,000 you all are mentioning hasn’t officially been given to us. That has to happen before anything else can.”
Dickens said, “Well, it will be, and you know it. We are getting really tired of all of this, man.”
Harp said, “It seems to me that there needs to be better management of money with you all. I think somebody needs to go through and see where it’s all going.”
Cook said, “That’s fine.”
Dickens asked, “ave you ever had your books gone through?”
Cook said, “No, but that would be fine with me, and I have only been in charge since last September.”
Those at the meeting also brought up the subject of several trees in ditches on Old Bottom Road.
“Those trees have been in the ditches for months to years,” said Harp.
Cook said, “Now, we came down there and cleaned a lot of that up.”
Harp said, “Nah, you did very little and threw the debris on my land and I had to repair my fence because of the damage y’all caused.”
Dickens said, “Let me tell you this. If someone ends up getting hurt because of you not repairing the roads like you should, I will personally foot the entire legal bill to bring you to court to face charges. We have already turned in a signed petition, so it’s on record what we are all asking of you, and rightly so.”
Cook said, “That’s fine with me. I told you all that I would try my best. I don’t know that I can do any better than that.”
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