Hawesville Mayor asks Congressman Brett Guthrie for help in releasing funds
“Just recently, I had the privilege of meeting with State Senator Boswell and he has guaranteed us that he will start helping us move forward,” Hawesville Mayor McCormick said, “and possibly get these state funds released to us. I also had the honor to meet with Congressman Guthrie. We used the whole 45 minutes to talk about
Hawesville. Suzanne Miles is going to send me all of his information. He is the one that is actually over the holding of funds.
Congressman Guthrie said with new administration in and what we’re doing to move forward, he felt he could get that state funding released. He said he wouldn’t promise anything, but to stay in contact with him, Senator Boswell, Representative Lewis and Rocky Adkins (Gov. Beshear’s Senior Advisor) and he said they could get
some things done for us. So, I’m HOPING that they really come through with what they say they’re going to try to help us with.
That would be tremendous for Hawesville right now.”
Project Updates
Engineer Bryan Lovan, Co-owner of Bluegrass Engineering, provided updates on projects. “On the storm water plant,” he said, “we submitted plans to the corps of engineers for the 50 percent design review for phase 1. We’re still working on trying to find a source for the gear box on the gate well. The US 60 project, all the road bores have been completed. They’ll start loading those up and then running the water lines and making connections. The lift station project is now complete. We’re waiting on KIA (KY Infrastructure Authority) for final payment.”
McCormick said the plan is to have phase 1 completed by the end of September, and before the river rises. “We do not want to address phase 2 yet and ask for more money until we complete phase 1,” he said, “because we’ll be frozen on funding when we ask for more. They’ve assured us it’s there and available for us, because there were some other communities that did not take advantage of this.”
Fire Truck Entrance/Exit
“We’ve inspected the future, additional fire truck entrance and exit road,” McCormick stated. “We walked back and took a look at what needed to be done for that to be wide enough for the truck to get out the back way. We’ve got what’s not going to be very much of a challenge, to widen that road to the north by 2 feet and we’re going to have to get some guidelines moved on some poles to where the fire truck will be able to move through there safely.”
City Administrator’s Update
City Administrator Jake Powers provided an update on TAP Grants through the KY Transportation Cabinet, that provide monies for county road aid, etc. “There are two spots – one in front of Hawesville Methodist Church and one on the corner,” Powers said, “there’s a curve with an inlet that has been damaged, so we’re applying for a TAP Grant that’s an 80/20 match, they’ll provide 80 percent and we’ll pay 20 percent of that.
We’re working with Matt Curtis and his team (Bluegrass Engineering) to get a detailed engineer’s estimate on what that will cost and then I’m going to work with GRADD on actually getting the grant application written to send off before the deadline.”
Powers stated that he will be attending Brownfield Boot Camp for 2 days at the end of August. “It will be a really good source of information for how we can get some of this funding from those Brownfield clean-ups,” he said. “If you’re not familiar with the Brownfield Clean-Up, they help through the EPA to get rid of some of the dilapidated buildings in your area that may be hazardous to the community.”
Blacktop/Patchwork
Powers and Councilman Justin Basham visited some areas in the city to make a list of potholes, cracks, etc. and will continue until repairs are completed. “Jake and I talked those over,” Councilman Basham said, “I know Scifres Lane – the county agreed to pay to blacktop that. Then, we have one at Pear Tree – we’re going to be doing some work where we have that mound
built-up, so it’s definitely one that we have to look at there. Most of our roads were in pretty good shape. A lot were just patched.”
Powers added, “That’s what we agreed on. A lot of it is touch-and-go places, where one road has one or two potholes, or cracks and then not a whole lot other from there on out. He (Basham) gave me a really nice list and I’m going to drive around and make notes of small potholes, etc., and see if we can get a priority list going, then touch base with him.”
Guard Rail
“We are looking at 20-feet of guard rail on Harrison where that seepage is,” McCormick said, “to keep semi- trucks off of that. And, our municipal road aid covers it.”
Beautification Committee
The Hawesville Beautification Committee Chair Paula Gray provided an update on the river clean-up she and volunteers have been doing. They’ve picked up trash from one end of the river bank to the other twice now, she said. She asked about the benches that were ordered, and if the area behind the flood wall can be trimmed with a weed eater, or if there is a way to tidy it up better. She also asked about getting more weeds and bushes cleaned out from the river bank with a rail mower to get that started. “From then on,” she said, “it wouldn’t be so bad to keep up.”
“That’s one thing I have not addressed,” McCormick answered. “The benches – the transportation (shipping) to us is terrible at this time, but, Paula we will get on that.”
Concerning the riverfront, McCormick said, “I’ll get down there and see if I can get a contractor or somebody to take a look at it. [As far as tidying up] behind the flood wall – we can’t spray it. I’ll check into it. If our team of municipality workers – if I feel like it’s dangerous for them to try to get on the rip rap and try to weed eat, then we will not touch it. I don’t want you all to do it (either). I don’t want anybody hurt.”
Paula asked, “When boaters take their boats out and back their trailers, are they supposed to go all the way to the grass? It’s tearing it up down there. The guys that mow have to mow around them; they did last week. There were trailers parked and those areas didn’t get mowed because of it.”
“I agree with cleaning up the weeds and some of that, but I need to get down there and look at it. We’ve covered a lot of things that were pressing,” McCormick said, “that we had to get done. We’ll go down and take a look at the boat ramp as well.”
Lighting by River
“Mr. Wigginton (Brent) and I talked about it last week,” McCormick said. “Kenergy is in the process of getting us the highest illumination LED lights possible to put down there. I think they’re 80,000 lumens. That’s going to light it up (along the riverfront).”
Dumping
“On our dumping issues,” Councilman Doyle said, “we used to have signs down there, with a $500 fine or whatever. We need to get with the guys and see what they’ve done with them and put them back up. When we put them up the first time, it helped a whole lot.” Paula added that the trash cans that were placed by the river have gotten either stolen or washed away when the water level rises.
Flooding
“We’re going to get Kenergy involved,” McCormick said. “We’ve had rains lately that you’re going to have flooding no matter what. We did find an area of about 120 feet to the bottom that needs to be jetted. The water is not even coming through it, it’s running over the top. It’s not making it down through that drain. We’ve got a parallel coming into it, down a ditch line that it’s not but an 8-inch and it’s only 6 feet of it. We’re just going to go on and jet it while we’re there too.
By Jennifer Wimmer
