HERE’S WHAT THE COUNTY HAS BEEN WORKING ON SO FAR THIS YEAR…
BY VINCE DOTY
DEPUTY JUDGE/EXECUTIVE
It has been a busy start to the summer for Lawrence County. First we will begin with what is going on at our county park.
The fiscal court has decided to change the park’s name from Lawrence County Park to Lawrence County Wilderness Park. We have several new additions to the park including a county operated general store. The store is stocked with food, snacks, drinks as well as live bait. The store is also preparing hot dogs, sandwiches, ice cream and plans for more prepared food.
The park also has more activities this year including a nine basket frisbee golf course, kayak rentals (five dollars for two hours), pedal boat rentals (six dollars an hour or ten dollars for two hours). The county is also hoping to add more RV and campsites as well as additional parking.
The park has been extremely busy with visitors especially along the lake and beach areas. It is really rewarding to see so many people enjoying themselves and having such a great time with their families.
We are working on plans to create an extreme haunted trail at the park this fall. We will have our first meeting about this Monday July 8th at 5:00 at the court house in the fiscal courtroom on the second floor. If anyone is interested in being a part of this please attend.
ROADS
The road department has been busy this past month. They have laid about 2500 tons of asphalt so far. We have plans to lay a lot more this year.
The road department has also been working on grass cutting. There has been a lot of concern from our citizens about weeds along the county roads. We are trying to take care of this situation as well as researching other alternatives to help with this problem. The road department has also been working diligently cleaning ditches as well as culverts.
The past month Judge Carter and myself made a trip to Frankfort with other coal counties to speak with Governor Bevin about returning all the coal severance money to the counties instead of the state keeping a percentage. After a return trip to Frankfort and lunch with Governor Bevin he committed to putting in his next budget for coal counties to receive 100% of coal severance money. Speaker of the house David Osborne as well as senate president Robert Stivers gave their full support to this plan. The coal severance fund is down about 70% of what it was in years past so any additional funds from the Governor will be a tremendous help.
ATV Trail System
There is also plans in the works for developing an ATV trail system in eastern Kentucky similar to the Hatfield and McCoy trail in West Virginia. We also spoke recently with Judge Malone from Carter County and Judge Lewis from Elliott county about the possibility of the three counties forming our own trail system.
The county is actively working on plans and ideas for bringing more tourism and jobs into the county in order to help with our economy.
Library branch?
The county would also like to work with our public library. It is the fiscal courts hope and desire for the library to build a branch library in rural parts of the county such as Blaine so that kids can have more access to everything the library has to offer children in town. The fiscal court worries that children in rural parts of the county are being left out.
The county is working continuously on new ideas and plans that will benefit the citizens of this great county.
again nothing about working on the city roads have they forgotten city residents also pay county taxes
Ask Harold to pave Levisa Drive. That’ll make it all better!!
no the county needs to pave some of the city roads since about a third of there tax revenue comes from the city residents who don’t get nothing from the county might as well light a match to the money they get from the city taxpayers
I thought the republican party was against spreading the wealth I was wrong
KAG
I’m pretty sure the county Sheriff covers in Lousy also!!!
they should since city residents also pay county taxes then shouldn’t you also believe the county should work or give the city there share of the tax money to work on city roads
The mayor has always been responsible for keeping up with the CITY ROADS and the COUNTY judge is responsible for the COUNTY ROADS. Everyone pays the same taxes as you. Maybe you should go to the MAYOR yourself with your concerns because posting comments will not get you anywhere.
you are wrong you do not pay the same taxes as city residents they pay city AND county taxes if you do NOT live in the city you do NOT pay city taxes
but the city residents do pay county taxes but get nothing for there money even though I would say about a third of county tax revenue comes from the city residents might as well set fire to it
This sounds like a very good thing to do. Where will it be located?
We need a courthouse and a
health department branch too.. I mean we do pay taxes…
Wasting money on remodeling every other year is all the library does. Good idea for a branch
Pretty sure the last remodel they did was in 2009.. and they’ve had nothing but trouble out of it.. look at the pictures on their website.. it’s going to be a great looking building
We already have a haunted trail
Why not put that money to use elsewhere
We already have a haunted trail..
Why not put that money to good use elsewhere .. Halloween is once a year .. use money for something used year round .. roads for one
Where will this be located?
Please pave our county road on Brushy it’s not been in over 20 years
The spot of road on Rt 3 @ Rt 1 needs repair ASAP. It’s getting worse everyday. It needs more than a patch job.
Other the Jordon annex on the courthouse, it has not been renovated or remodeled since 1964, and it shows. Compared to other counties it looks awful and definitely shows its age.