County roads of concern
By Jim Cox Co-Publisher

Road woes took up a portion of Monday's and Tuesday's meetings of the Clarke County Commission with County Engineer Sam Noble blaming recent rains and heavier than usual logging for the problems.

At Monday's work session, Dereck Gates who lives in the Perry's Chapel area again restated a previous request to pave dirt roads in the area. He said the county was using its road graders to pull people out of ditches on Morning Star Road and Sylvania Lane and he thought the machines shouldn't have to be used for that.

He has requested that 2.5 miles of Manila Road and seven miles of Morning Star Road be paved.

Noble said most of the past week's problems have been in the southern part of the county, along Morning Star Road (commonly known as the Old Line Road) where logging has been especially active.

Noble said "long, slow soaking rains" softened the road. Then, loggers working in the area continued hauling. When a log truck slipped into the ditch on the Morning Star Road, a skidder was brought in to try and pull it out and only contributed to the problem.

Commission Chairman Paul Bradford asked if the county had the authority to stop logging due to bad road conditions and Noble said it did. But, Noble explained, "By the time we found out about it and got there it was a mess."

Noble noted, "There is a lot of [logging] activity right now. I have never seen as much clear cutting around the county as I'm seeing now. We are feeling it on all our roads, specifically our dirt roads. Unfortunately, a lot of them [loggers] won't stop after a rain."

Noble added, "Loggers are the lifeblood of this county but sometimes they cause problems."

Commissioners agreed they do not want to hamper the timber industry because it is so important to the economy but that in some instances they have to curtail hauling because of road conditions.

As to paving, it was estimated that paving would cost a minimum of $400,000 per mile, more if rights-of-way have to be secured, as it would have to be on many dirt roads. The county has sought federal funds unsuccessfully to pave parts of the Old Line Road and agreed this week to revisit that effort.

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