We Deserve Better
“The state of the commonwealth is strong. Very strong. We have much to celebrate tonight,” Governor Bevin said during his 45-minute speech from the chamber of the Kentucky House.
Originally, I was going to write my message on the Governor’s State of the Commonwealth Address. However, during a conference call after lunch someone pointed out that one of our Judge Executives posted on his Facebook page about having to declare a state of emergency.
So, I scrapped my original copy. With Harlan County’s Judge Executive Dan Mosley’s permission I am reprinting what he wrote below:
Posted on Thursday, January 7, am.
“Earlier today, I declared a state of emergency due to the significant mudslide that has occurred on Kentucky 72 at Catrons Creek impacting approximately 300 households in that community. Work is continuing at this hour and will continue throughout the evening. The road is reduced to one lane, expect delays when driving through this area.
What some folks outside of the county didn’t understand, and a question I received from a media outlet was “why didn’t people just avoid this area and take another route?” Kentucky 72 is a dead end road that was supposed to be connected into Pathfork years ago, which is also Kentucky 72 that’s in Harlan County, but you have to go into Bell County to get there by taking U.S. 119. It never happened. It needs to be constructed but it has a high construction cost and has never moved forward. It’s currently a gravel mining road. So it’s important to understand that should an even more significant slide occur that blocks both lanes, the people on the other side would be trapped from getting through. That’s why I felt a state of emergency is warranted.
The slide is where a state project took place over the last year and a half to address a slide concern. The Transportation Cabinet allocated funds to address this issue. The project that took place went over budget. Frankly, the Transportation Cabinet did not have enough funds to properly address this situation on Kentucky 72.
It is my opinion that today’s slide would not have occurred had the project that occurred there been properly funded. Mark my words. These types of things will continue to happen if we do not encourage our legislature to create the necessary revenue to fund our ailing transportation system. Not just in Harlan County, but every Kentucky county will see and continue to experience a failing transportation system because there is not enough funding to properly maintain our infrastructure, which has been proven in Harlan County today. We deserve safe roads without fear of a boulder or tree coming through our windshields.”
KBT couldn’t agree more, Kentucky deserves better.