Anthony Cloud
Staff Writer
Bell County Fiscal Court approved payments of $10,940 and $21,875.30 to Vaughn and Melton Consulting Engineers for design and construction services on the Asher Industrial Park Access Road during the regular meeting on Tuesday.
Judge-executive Albey Brock said the design work to pave the industrial park road is now being finalized.
The paved road will be 45 feet wide and 10 inches thick with guardrails. Brock stated paving the road will be paid through part of the $8.3 million secured several years ago for the industrial park.
“In order for us to ultimately make the park viable, we’ve got to have the infrastructure to do it,” said Brock.
Brock said the job will end up costing $4 million. He also stated the money could not be used on anything else except paving the road.
“If it wasn’t going toward blacktopping a road in Bell County, they would be blacktopping a road in Pike County with it,” said Brock. “We should feel thankful and blessed that we are getting to improve our industrial park infrastructure during this recession.”
Brock also stated paving the road would help with many of the safety issues during the ATV events, such as the Holler Crawler Haunted Forest Ride.
The fiscal court also awarded the bid for the Brownies Creek Waterline Replacement Phase I project to Ash Mountain Inc. of Harlan in the amount of $466,275.
The bids were opened last Thursday at the Vaughn and Melton office.
Ash Mountain submitted the lowest bid. Akins Excavating and Flowline Contracting were two other companies submitting bids of $488,653.75 and $538,212.50, respectively.
In other business, the court:
* Approved minutes from the previous meeting;
* Paid bills and made necessary account transfers;
* Accepted treasurer’s financial statement for previous month;
* Accepted the sheriff’s claim sheet for the fee account for the previous month;
* Accepted the audit of Bell County Fiscal Court for year ending 6-30-11;
* Approved a Fourth Amended and Restated Interlocal Agreement between Bell and surrounding counties and Operation UNITE;
* Accepted checks in the amount of $340,374.41 from Bruce Bennett, sheriff;
* Accepted checks from Becky Blevins, clerk;
* Approved payment of $45 to the Bell County Clerk for registration and official plates for three new ambulances;
* Approved a resolution to the Cumberland Valley Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan update for Bell County.
Anthony Cloud can be reached via email at acloud@civitasmedia.com or by phone at 606-248-1010, ext. 208.
“We should feel thankful and blessed that we are getting to improve our industrial park infrastructure during this recession.”
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Maybe we could be more thankful if we actually HAD an industrial park. You know - one with some actual industry and JOBS.
Seems like we were told a while back that paving wouldn't be done until construction on that power plant was completed. So, is that about ready to go online? Maybe the Daily News forgot to run that story.
If there's any blacktop left over, the county can always use that to pave the parking lots for those new Fire Stations they'll be opening.
So, official tags only cost $15? Wow, we could all save a lot of money if we could put those on our private vehicles. But that would be - illegal.