If you were to describe Franklin County resident Donald King using only one word, you couldn't go wrong with persistent.
King, who's lived on Highway 73 since 1980, has been a regular at Franklin County Commission work sessions and meetings over the past decade. And with a new county commission holding its first work session December 9th, King was once again on the agenda to state his case to commissioners about the condition of Highway 73.
“I want to acquaint our new commissioners with Highway 73,” King said. “It is the main traffic road into the (Franklin County) Landfill, and other landfills. Over the years we've had a lot of torn up roads because of logging trucks, garbage trucks and trailers, and Highway 73 is among the worst.”
King, who met with former Franklin County Engineer David Palmer regularly, said Palmer had sections of 73 chip sealed, but King says those sections tear up in six months to a year due to the heavy traffic the road sees each day.
“He then decided to go with this mix,” King said of Palmer. And we were promised they would get the bad spots on Highway 73 done. They've been logging over a year on 73 and there are at least two logging operations going both ways now.”
While King acknowledged a two-mile section of 73 south from Highway 58 was repaved and in good condition, he requested the commission to get an additional section repaved next year.
“I understand it can't all be done at once, but I'm asking you to at least get another section done—at least where some stretch of Highway 73 is repaved and there's progress being made,” King said.
“Thank you for your time and please help us out,” he added.
King said the deteriorating conditions of Highway 73 will only get worse if not addressed. He specifically mentioned the 'deteriorated condition' of 73 from Arnett Road to the creek.
With a limited budget, the Franklin County Highway Department doesn't have the funding to repave more than a fraction of the county's deteriorated roads each year. Criteria for deciding how and where to use the available funds include traffic counts on each road, the condition of each road after an inspection by the county engineer who looks at striping, utility cuts, rutting, erosion and edge repairs. Some lower traffic roads can receive repair of base failures and a chip seal, an option not always available for higher speed and higher traffic roads.
A conservative estimate of the cost to apply one inch of asphalt to a 20-foot wide road in Alabama is approximately $85,000 according to Elmore County chief operations officer Richie Beyer, quoted in an article published by the Wetumpka Herald early this year.
Any citizen may address the commission at a work session by calling the Franklin County Commission Office to be placed on the agenda of the next meeting. The work sessions are held the second Monday of each month at 5 p.m., with delegations and citizens addressing the commission at 6 p.m.
