Daviess County Fiscal Court received a statewide update from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet on Tuesday, but Daviess County Judge-Executive Al Mattingly denied KYTC’s recommendation to use $299,000 in county flex funds for repairs on state highways. Mattingly told KYTC that the county commission would like to keep their flex funds and use them for projects of their own choosing instead.
While Mattingly said Fiscal Court had a good, long-standing relationship with KYTC, he said that didn’t mean he would approve KYTC’s recommendation or allow the state to determine exactly how, where or on which road systems allocated county government funds would be spent.
The state offered Daviess County $1,043,000 in rural secondary funds. KYTC was given 80 percent of that amount, $744,000, for projects of their choosing and Daviess County was given the remainder, $299,000.
County commissioners approved KYTC’s funds for the repair of KY-554 and KY-405 in Daviess County. KYTC recommended the county use their discretionary funds to improve KY-279 over the Audubon Parkway at mile point 7.42 and KY-1389 over Pup Creek at mile point 4.
“This $299,000 is our discretionary funds, our flex funds,” Mattingly said after the meeting. “The state would like us to spend that on state highways, but we don’t have to. We’d like to spend it on county roads.”
As it stands, Daviess County has earned a B rating on their roads, which makes them one of only two or three counties to have secured that high of a score.
KYTC’s project to repair KY-554 will cost $395,000 and will include asphalt resurfacing that stretches 4.3 miles on KY-81. The other KYTC project approved at Tuesday’s Fiscal Court meeting calls for overlaying a section of land with asphalt and repairing of guardrails on KY-405, through a stretch of KY-662. These repairs are estimated to cost KYTC $330,000.
Commissioner Mike Koger asked KYTC where they were at on elevating a strip of road on US-60 W in the Stanley area, as the road has suffered a years-long qualm from flooding.
KYTC assured Koger and the county commission that bids for the reconstruction project on US-60 W would be conducted this month and that a contractor for the project would be decided by April.
