Road Department report presented to magistrates

Mon, 01/04/2021 - 1:39pm — Diane Dyer

Butler County Fiscal Court met in regular session on Monday, December 28, at the Butler County Courthouse. All magistrates were in attendance: Stevie Givens, Kevin Phelps, Timmy Givens, David Whittinghill, and Dillon Bryant.

After calling the meeting to order and approving the minutes for December 14 and December 21, the court heard year-end reports from all department heads.

The court approved two transfers from the General Fund: $10,000 to E-911 and $25,000 to the Jail Fund.

Payment of bills and transfers were also approved.

Supervisor Jonathan Deweese gave the Road Department Report:

"For the year 2020, the Butler County Road Department has done multiple clearing jobs to widen and help with sight distance for the motorist, Hood Road, Big Jim, Arndell, Doyle Dockery Stephens Chapel, to name a few. Bryant Ridge Road had a slide that occurred at the beginning of the year that compromised the road's integrity; therefore, it had to be dug out and replaced with rip rap and dense grade to ensure the road's structure.

The past year the Butler County Road Department began mowing all county right of ways on April 27 and finished on October 27 and covered every county road four times. We also have kept gravel roads graded and rocked as needed. We finished slope mowing in the 4th and 5th districts. This past spring and have begun in the 2nd and 3rd districts with plans to complete them in the spring of 2021.

Since January 1, 2020, the County Road Department has replaced 66 culverts and cleaned or repaired numerous others throughout the county. We removed or taken down over 70 trees that were hindrances to motorists traveling our roads. We have kept school bus turns rocked as reported by the Board of Education, and mail box approaches fixed as reported by the Post Office. We have kept North Butler Park mowed along with Woodbury and Rochester. In all this, we had the State of Emergency in February, which caused significant damage to several of our roads that needed immediate attention. We repaired all of them promptly. We still like Leonard Oak and Boss Hogg because they are held up in mitigation.

The Road Department started chip-n-sealing in August. We made and used over 750 tons of cold mix, and we completed 42 roads in the 2nd, 4th, and 5th districts. We will finish 3rd district this spring; we did a tanker of oil for the City of Morgantown in which they paid for all materials, also we supported Woodbury and Rochester when time allows for needs they have on their streets also. The Road Department has received over $247,000 of blacktop. We have secured and received a $100,000 grant for crumb rubber modified asphalt placed on Region Road that will be a five-year study conducted with the Division of Waste Management. The Road Department has kept both Rochester and Reeds Ferries operational throughout the year and replaced a motor in the Rochester Ferry right before Thanksgiving.

I want to thank all the employees and ferry operators for their service and dedication to Butler County."