Highway Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, I will call the Coffey County Highway Commission June meeting to order a few minutes after 3 o'clock, and we will get started. I think we've taken our roll. Everybody has signed the roll sheet. All our guests have signed in. We're good on the sign up. First thing, we need to approve the agenda. Everybody should have a copy of the agenda.

Motion to approve.

Got a motion by Arliss and seconded by Jeff to approve the agenda. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, like sign. Well, we have approved the agenda. Now we are ready for public comments. And we've got Mr. John Magarelli. Is that right? That's pretty good for, like you said, for coffee. You can either come up here and grab a seat or the mic, whichever one you're more comfortable with. We've got, so whichever. Okay, just whichever one's.

The more bending I do with this right leg, the more it hurts.

Make sure that microphone is on. Nothing's on. I don't hear anything.

Can anybody hear me?

to the, it's for the recording, not for, there's no speakers in here, just for recording.

Just let me know when I'm ready to go ahead. Go ahead. Okay, with all due respect, whoever this is attended for, like I said, I had two pages of stuff, my wife broke it down to one page, but hello, my name is John Magarelli. I reside at 3353 Ragsdale Road in Manchester, just outside city limits. My wife and I moved out of city limits to avoid traffic, speeding cars, and construction vehicles. However, due to the tandem dump trucks, semi trucks, and other large vehicles, we can't sit out on our front porch easily to have a conversation due to the sounds of these vehicles flying by. More concerning is that it is also a speed problem with vehicles going by, particularly coming over the node just east of our driveway, frequently crossing the double yellow line. The speed limit is 45, and many vehicles appear to be going faster than that as they pass by our house. Due to this, we are leery of checking our mailbox, which is across the road from our home, for the fear of being caught in the middle of the road. And we have to be very careful pulling out of our driveway in case of a car flying over the knoll just as we pull out. We have been told by neighbors that there have been several fatal accidents in front of our property over the years. We, as well, multiple mailbox replacements needed. We are fearful that another fatal accident possibly involving ourselves may occur. In addition, we are worried that if our pets get out, they will definitely be killed. Due to live, we do live across from Supersod property and understand they need their vehicles. But otherwise, there are no commercial businesses on Ragsdale Road near our home that would require large equipment vehicles to travel this road regularly. Highway 55 runs parallel to our road and should be used for commercial vehicles and those wanting to travel at a higher speed. We are asking that something be done to investigate our concerns and we have the following suggestions. Do a speed check. Increase police patrol. Check installed guard railings coming over the knoll. Place hidden driveway signs and other flashing lights. We appreciate listening to our complaints, not being mean residents or anything and all that stuff. We just want to live comfortably and live safely. With all respect and everything, I, John Magarelli, on 3353 Rags to the World, appreciate your attention. Thank you.

Oh, thank you for coming. Thank you. Again, like we talked before the meeting, it's the issue that we're facing. Several spots across the county. But as far as the county convention, our hands are tied as far as limiting traffic. Anything else to add to that, Ben?

No, the bigger trucks have a right to be on that road. They don't have a right to speed and they don't have a right to...

Well, like I said, I know it's a county road and everything and all that stuff.

But again, I think you've already started the ball rolling.

Like my concern is when people don't realize coming over that knoll from the west, from the east, as they're coming, I mean, as you get to that top of the knoll, if you don't make that slight turn, you're in my yard, you're in my house, you're in with everything, you know. My suggestion is, I mean, they got a wiggly sign there. As you know, as well as I know, nobody reads signs. Nobody reads speed limits. If you were coming from the west, you'd probably catch my wife. But, I mean, I like sitting out in the front. I like sitting out in the back. But when she comes home, she likes sitting out in the front. And between certain hours... I mean, I was cutting that side embankment. She don't want me to cut the side embankment, but I was cutting it one time, and a pickup truck came flying over him. His tires were half on that white line, and I mean, another three inches, he would have been in that ditch. And they don't realize it. Maybe possibly, do I want a guard railing in front of my house? No. Does Tom next door want a guard railing? But if they're going to go off, they're going to hit the guard railing, which will bounce them back into the road. But Tom said, my neighbor next door said that there have been several head-on collisions there. I mean, personally, how many people have to die just like an intersection? How many people have to die before they put a traffic light? I mean, I'm old school. I was born on a Tuesday. It wasn't last Tuesday. And just for safety reasons, that's what I'm looking at.

But do you know where you're talking about, JoJo?

This is right close to Taylor Road. Yeah, I just looked it up.

If you go past Taylor Road, coming from the west.

Taylor Road and Ragsdale Road.

If you go from the west, from... Circle K and everything, past Alley Road, the third house on the left. And that bridge is going to give out with these tandem trucks going over it. It may be assigned 40 tons, but that could be an old sign when it was new. But, I mean, I've seen that bridge move. Because when they're coming down these trucks, I just stop. I let them go right away. There ain't enough room for that.

Well, I'll tell everybody. Those roads, when they were built, starting in the 50s, I guess, and 60s, they weren't built for the...

They weren't built for that stuff.

It wasn't, you know... And we're sort of, our hands are sort of tied. But again, we've already passed along to the sheriff's office...

Check and see if you don't see some increased patrol activity over the next days and weeks.

Yeah, and then when Joe and Ben here, they work for the highway department, when they're out that way, they can sort of glance and see if there's anything that, you know... If there's any signage or anything that would help.

Not to be mean or not, and I had talked to, I went to the city first, and then they brought, they just said, well, you're in a county, and there was sheriffs that came from the county a couple of months ago, 4 o'clock in the morning. My dogs were going at it, and I went out there, and there was, I mean, my, I felt they were going to try to steal my truck, my Tundra truck. I got an $83,000 truck sitting out there and everything, and. You want to steal it, my first instinct is you better be driving it to heaven. Because, you know, I don't want to hurt anybody. I will if I have to. You know, I mean, you know, and believe me, my best buddy for 50 years up north goes, he got a buddy. I mean, I got this cut. My hair was down. My beard was down to here. I went up north to go see my kids. He's I'm a Duck Dynasty fan. My kids go to me, Dad, you've got to cut it off. I say, I'll cut it off, but I'm growing it back. And even my best buddy for 50 years, he goes, I've got a buddy, he's got long hair, he's got tattoos, he's got earrings, he's got all that stuff, but he's got the heart the size of Texas. And I try to be a good Christian. I try to help others. But I'm out there. When I saw this place, I talked. We looked, me and my wife, we looked, we moved up from Florida, I met her in Florida, her father worked for the base, Air Force Base, and I saw this, she goes, check it out, and I said, you know, 25 by 60 building, parking, carport, bigger house, You know, we went from 3,800 square feet to 1,100 square feet. And then I said, no, I'm not a city person. I'm a country boy, you know.

We can put our big sign, flashy sign out there and do speed limit.

Well, and hit the driveway. They don't realize it because I always tell my wife, I mean, I don't pull out quick. I don't drive fast. I get a ticket for going slow. I mean, when I drove up, I drive up to New York every year, November 1st. I come back December 5th. I go up to see my kids, my grandkids, and I do my three weeks of hunting. And my top speed is maybe 63 all the way up. And I pull a 7x14 cargo trailer. But, you know, like I tell everybody, hey, when I was young, I was the biggest outlaw going. Never been in jail. Don't plan to go yet.

But we've got you down, of course, beyond the minutes and the recording. And then, of course... We can see what the highway can do and then the sheriff's department. But it's a problem that I can honestly say that we're fighting multiple places across the county with the growth, especially with people and industry.

we're fighting several places so we've got you down and uh we can we can see what we can yeah we can see what can we do i understand what you're saying years ago when the roads and the bridge was built it wasn't built for these big trucks and everything itself okay yeah even out in the country we have some of the signs yeah um i mean i sit in my back all i see is Cornfields and woods and I got about four acres and I mean I go in front and I see nothing beside fields Big tandem comes flying by Thank you for bringing your concerns and that's what we're here for I appreciate if something can get done. I mean, I understand how things work and everything, but just take it one day at a time. Give it to the Lord. That's right. That's all I can do.

That's right. Thank you. All right.

Well, you folks have a blessed evening. You too.

Thank you for coming.

Appreciate you coming. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. The next thing on the agenda, we need to approve last month's minutes. Everybody should have a copy and I had a chance to look over them. Motion to approve. I second it. Motion to approve and a second to approve the May minutes. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, like sign. The minutes have passed. They don't have any unfinished business. And now we will move into new business. And Benton or JoJo, whoever wants to...

We don't have a whole lot to say this week, do we, JoJo, this month? We've got, I think we've got one round already gone around on the mowers. Is that right?

Yep. Looks like you've started the second. Yeah, we have.

Started on the second. Had a little teeth in planes. We switched some routes around and new folks on new routes and probably mowed a little more than they wanted us to, I guess you'd say. But, yeah. We're getting that straightened out. It's always that way. You get mowing flyers down, things like that every year seems like.

Well, I know I've had some calls when I first came on. I feel for the drivers because when they come through my property, they can go back as far as they want to go back. But then I know that the next person down the road may not want you to go as far back as so. I do feel for the drivers to have them to make

We did good by switching them.

Yeah.

We did good by switching them around a little bit. They don't, you know, they get kind of complacent on the same route year after year after year or so. Yeah. But.

I got to find new sleeping blocks. Yeah, yeah.

That being said. No, that's true. That being said, you know, there's a few things got hit this year that get dodged, you know, before. But we're working through that, and everything's.

I was in my hometown, Tallahoma, and these people, they were complaining about their routing from Lakeland County, Lynchburg, Winchester, coming through Tallahoma and coming down by the lake to go up the interstate.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

So I guess that's why we're getting so much down in the country.

Traffic's changed a little, too, and it'll keep changing. That fella was just in here. That rock quarry that's opened got bought again by Smyrna Ready Mix on the road to Altamont 108.

It's changing traffic flow.

They've got some trucks now coming from that quarry to the cement plant in Manchester. There's a few more dump trucks coming over Fred Lusk. We've got We did some pretty big patches over at Fred Lusk where we cut the road out. It was kind of buckling, so we went on down and got some wet material out from under that road and patched it back. It's holding pretty good. Hopefully, we'll hot mix that road at some point. What is that road? Fred Lusk. Fred Lusk.

L-U-C-K? Mm-hmm.

Benton, is it above our ability to ask that some of those trucks route down 127 and 41 instead of down Ragsdale? No, we can't.

You can't really suggest that? No. It's hard, but really all we do is take care of the roads that we've got. We really don't have any input or authority to say who can run any road as far as that goes or as long as they've got license and uh and you know restoration and their truck's legal to drive and the driver's legal there's not a whole lot we can do it's up to the someone else to regulate the traffic laws yeah there's one good thing you did is the road from going into tolahoma from the lake uh bale and then cutting down

like y'all did a lot of work on to the other road through there. Yeah, yeah, well. Linda Bell? No.

Those roads are getting more expensive, and it's harder to get some done.

Before you get to town, you cut down through there at the railroad track. Ralph Broderick. Ralph Broderick.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Have you started doing any paving yet?

We have started paving. We had a little bit of a hard time. We got ready to go, and then it came all this rain. We've cleaned up a little bit, a few sticks and trees and limbs and stuff around. But as much rain as we got, it actually got the road so wet that it was kind of squishy and pumping a little bit. So we didn't want to put asphalt on top of that. We put it down. We want it to be right because we can't afford to do it again. So we moved. We were going to start on a road, and we decided to move from there and go to one that was a little drier and got that done this week. But we've actually got a little money we need to spend on roads, and we need to. You know, we need the weather to cooperate a little better, though, I guess. We don't have too much money. Don't get me wrong there.

I'll fix that for a record. No.

But we've got funds enough to do some paving from now until the end of the month is when our budget year changes. So we just got to June 30th now, so we need to hustle up and get as much as we can get done. But other than that, that's what we're really fighting is trying to get that paving done and keeping our mowers in line. And they're doing an excellent job again this year mowing. It's just when you're new on a route, you don't know what the other guys have been dodging and missing. We let it get by before we So I've gone out a time or two and just pointed right at it and said, you don't need to leave this long and mow here and not here. But that's something every year, so that's nothing new. All of our trucks and all of our mowers are doing pretty good right now. That newest mower we got, we bent it up. thing that carries the blades under the deck, and we got those straightened out, and now it's mowing a lot better. So everything's going good right now on the mowing. And the paving will go good, the weather will cooperate a little bit. Everything's ready to go. We've done a little ditching around, a place or two, get the water running a little better. We could find them a lot better after it rains, can't we, Joe? Mm-hmm. cleaned out a few tiles where they run found a big old uh it's one of them commercial grade uh bags you put garbage in i went on what you call those things but fished one of them out of a tile it was getting close to flooding somebody's yards yep picked up a lot of brush But, you know, the rains, although we had a little bit, it's not as, you know, we've had years where it affected us a lot worse. So we're doing pretty good on the weather. I just, you know, can't complain about rain too much. We need it.

Anything else to add to that, JoJo?

Just we're adding Devil's Backbone to the paving list.

say that again please devil's backbone it's a fire lake okay to which list yeah that's my area it's a big area they're gonna get you to help when they start yeah we'll have you flagging miss carol i need you to flag for us that's a good idea yeah

I can see if anything gets out of the way or if we're wrong.

No, I have nothing new to add. Me and Benton went to a THOA meeting in Gatlinburg for a week.

Got a few good contacts up there for some different things. Heard all about the new laws and rules and got to deal with this year, which is not many. They didn't change hardly anything about that. We were kind of hoping they would figure out a way to get us a little money down to the county level, but that didn't hardly do. One of them was they was going to try to, apparently there's a pretty big fee when you close on a piece of property.

There really is a transfer tax.

Yeah, they was going to bring it back to the counties. Give us a little bit of it. I don't know how much. But that didn't. That fell through.

I know it's been the talk to bring in that transfer tax when you register a piece of property.

So we're still looking. We've got some good people. They know we've got some trouble. So, you know, just hope for the best.

All right. You have anything, Arliss?

The only thing I might ask, since the mowing's going well and everything, a couple of these roads where there's brush right there by the intersections, I think we talked about this and y'all cut it back last year, Shady Grove or Rigsby and corner of Rigsby and... Like you're going out of Shady Grove and then going to Morrison. Casey. Casey Road, Casey and Rigsby. Scrolling back out, you know, where you can't see to pull out. I was just wondering if a few of those intersections are like that. I'm sure there's plenty of other ones.

And they're supposed to get those. Okay. But, you know, it don't hurt to remind them sometimes.

Remind them, ask them, yeah. Mm-hmm. I just noticed the other night that that was growing back out. They'd done a pretty good job of trimming it back last fall.

They really let that corner grow up, didn't they?

They have, yeah.

There's an old house in there or something, I noticed.

Uh-huh. Yeah, it's a shame the way it let it grow up and just keeps growing out in the field more every year.

You know, there's one thing, too, with all this rain, these trees are beautiful.

They're drooping down really bad, aren't they?

I've got some around us too. I didn't think it was a problem, but now you, yeah.

I got one other day, I was going, I can't remember where it was at, Oak Hill. It was over the road, and when I came back by, it was touching the road, so it had come unrooted from the ground. So I just pulled it on down and got my old briar blade and cut it up enough to get it out of the road.

Anything else, Arliss? No, sir. Anything, Jeff? Anything, Ms. Carolyn?

Well, there was that hole there at Schaefer, but it's on Oak Hill. You turn here at Schaefer. And it was fixed, but today I noticed something had come out of it. I don't know. I think it's just.

Is it on Oak Hill?

Yes, sir. It's right there where Matthew. I mean, if you're coming down Oak Hill from uptown or whatever.

Yeah.

And when you turn to go to Mr. Weiser's, it's right there, past Schaefer Road.

But it's on Oak Hill.

Yes, sir.

I got it today.

Another thing, too, what about the speed things for, we talked about the last time, or before, the speed signs? Yes. like for the main road there, then go on Oak Hill. Blanton Chapel? Blanton Chapel. Go there.

I didn't do that. I'm sorry.

No, hey, that's fine, dear.

Get on it?

I'll tell you what.

What's the speed limit there?

You know, those big trucks. Now, I'm just thankful that the slop trucks, you know, that was really tearing them up, but... There's a lot of other trucks, I think, that are going places, you know, small. The roads where they don't need to be going. But I don't know much about that.

Anything else, Ms. Carolyn?

I think then, thank y'all so much. Appreciate all of y'all.

Y'all, I got, you know, brag about Miller's Crossroads. I've had a few people talk about keeping that mold, like, you know, we talked about. But I've had a few people bragging about, you know, keeping it mowed.

Yeah.

A lot more regular, you know.

He does a good job.

More regular than just when, like, crows come through. And then now somebody bring up Betsy Willis Road. You know, it's decent shape, but it's a little rough. But it's one of them deals that I'm afraid if you make it too nice –

Well, I mean, it'll be a while before we build up enough money to do that.

That's what I was going to ask. Is this a state aid road?

No.

It's not a state aid?

No, the one we did pave, it was a state aid road, but Betsy Wills is not.

But Betsy Wills is not. That's one thing I wanted to ask you.

We might get it put on. We'll have to do an application through the state. It's not too big a deal, but. It has to, there's rules on those roads. It has to connect, so it connects Prairie Plains, but it really needs to connect something like 127.

Does it connect, yeah, does it connect Prairie Plains? The other end of it. To 41. To Rutledge Hill, doesn't it? To 41. To 41. Bessie Willis goes all the way to 41?

Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Again, I travel that road pretty regularly. And what it is, the morning time, you know, like starting now, and then morning time, you get anybody coming from Pelham going to the base or even going to Tahoma. I've heard, I know people that work in Tahoma that live, Grundy County, Pelham, we're down that way. They take Bessie Willis, hit Prairie Plain, Miller's Crossroads, come out at the base, and then, you know, the, But I didn't know if Bessie Wilson would stay at 8 or older or not. It would be nice if he was to get it. That is strange. But what scares me, if we ever get it like it needs to be, as strange as it is and stuff, that it will be a rightful. Yeah. Yeah. It about is now. If you made the road so much any better.

There have been more comments about the same road, Ragsdale.

Yeah. Ragsdale gets quite a bit of traffic because you have people coming from.

I got a little side note for Ragsdale Road. I know he was talking about safety there more or less. That was his gist of his little thing, safety on Ragsdale Road. Anybody that sees an accident needs to report it. The state troopers keep up with that. They keep up with fatalities on any road. They always report the fatalities, but people that run off in the ditch and their buddy comes by and pulls them out or whatever, anything that can get reported, they don't count alcohol. people that wreck them because of alcohol they don't count those but if the roads uh got a curve in it that people keep running off those those need to be reported whether they're drunk or not but uh are intoxicated i shouldn't say drunk but we have some stats to prove it but yeah but that road is one of the last roads we've had they had a safety survey and a safety grant done about they spent about $250,000 or $60,000 on that road. It was no cost to the county, but it was a state grant. You'll notice a lot of Chevron signs on Ragstall and curve signs, and I don't know the county speed limit signs, but TDOT's very picky about what they do, and it doesn't always line up with what people think they ought to do. Right. But they're like us. They don't have any money either. So they try to do what they can with what money they got. And I think we've gotten three of those safety surveys done. A total of close to $750,000 on all three of them put together since I've been in office. Now, I think that Rags to Roads was one of the last ones that got done.

Was Asbury done too?

Well, see, that's how they pick them out. The ones that have the most crashes and a fatality, a fatality really runs them up the ladder, you know, is one thing they need to do. And Asbury got done, I believe, when Steve Park was in there.

I was thinking when I first came on was when they. Yeah.

So that's been, what, 20 years or 16 years ago or 18.

Now what happened?

Safety grant on Asbury Road.

The state will come in and put up signs and whatever.

So that was done in 2010, probably 2012, somewhere along in there. But it's probably, you know, if it keeps, they'll just need to report those wrecks. I'll just put it that way.

There was one thing I'd like to say. This lady approached me. And she lives on 41 where you get to turn on Oak Hill. The house is built by Alan Howard. And I just ran into her somewhere, a restaurant or something. She said that the mowers had knocked down two mailboxes.

Do we ever... Now, we hit them all the time. It's not very... It's not very unusual. I know we've hit two or three so far this year. We've been putting them back up and trying to leave them better than they were when they went down.

She lives on 41?

Yes, on 41, that last brick house.

That would have been the state.

That would have been the state boys. Contracted.

Contracted workers. But we hit them, and they're not hard to hit.

She said that she hit who?

If it's on the state road, that'd be the contractor.

Yeah, they should be coming back through any time.

Anybody else have any other business?

I was going to ask JoJo about our road. There's getting to be more. It's just a short road and it's got big trees on it, but it's getting where you have to really get way off or can't get off when you're passing people. And I just was wondering if there's any way that this might be a little part of that. I mean, a place or two, you know, where you did have room to.

On your room?

Mm-hmm.

I mean, yeah, we could look at that, yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

You need a place to pass, don't you?

I'll slow down. Yeah. if there's any other business uh i think i looked at the next the july meeting will be july 1st right so uh we'll set the meeting for july 1st at three o'clock here at the administrative meeting plaza anything else are we gonna be here july 1st

No, we'll be out. Y'all be out that week? Oh, that week?

Well, I don't know.

I can't remember.

What is that for?

We need to change that.

We'll push it to the 8th then?

I think it'd be a safe thing to do. Okay. I don't know. I didn't look at the, I mean, they sent us a sheet out when we were taking off, but I didn't.

See, y'all be out? That's on a Wednesday. Could y'all be out? I bet y'all's holiday.

The 4th is Saturday.

was on saturday i bet we're all you're off friday anyway so you mean you probably be off yeah so you're taking that week or yeah yeah i bet you i bet you're off from the i don't know if we need to say anything about bonnaroo or not but bonnaroo will be here next week it's not going to be a big deal for us we got our it's all in the city now but uh i guess we'll set it as the eighth

Okay, yeah. You can tell Michelle whatever she needs.

Is that the second Wednesday?

Yeah, the second Wednesday. Then whatever she needs to do for the county and, you know what I mean, I guess whatever. I don't know what all that entails of when we've got it posted right. No, Michelle gets straightened out. Yeah, that's what. Anything else?

Motion to adjourn.

Got a motion by Arliss to adjourn. Second. Seconded by Jeff. All in favor of adjourning, say aye. Aye. All those in favor, sign. We'll adjourn until July the 8th. Thank you all.

What time is it? What time do you have? What time is it?