Down here at the end of our lane

Our mailboxes are out on the highway, and several times we've had mail stolen, mail opened, the mailboxes damaged, even had to go in town a while to pick up our mail because of an anonymous threat someone made to put a bomb in our boxes. Since our little road has seven property owners along it's length, and five residences, I checked to see what it would take to have the mail delivered down our lane. The post office said they cannot deliver on private roads, so my next step was to see if I could get the county to take over maintenance, and make it a county road. That would also save me money since I'd paid for several truck loads of gravel, and for grading. I was told I needed to go through the county attorney for this.

I presented the proposal to the county attorney and was told they'd get back with me. About once every two months I'd stop in to see if there was any progress but was never able to learn anything. More than a year passed. The election saw a new county attorney elected, so I asked for an appointment with him. Talking with him I learned it was not even up to the county attorney, but I had to present a petition signed by all seven property owners to the fiscal court for approval. He gave me the dates the court would be meeting and I drafted a petition, tracked down the two absentee owners, and had the other five owners along the lane sign it. I presented it to that court, and after they did their inspection I was told they would take over maintenance and make it a county road if I changed the entry off the highway. The lane enters the highway at about a 45 degree angle toward the south and makes it difficult to enter from the north. You have to swing wide into the oncoming lane to make the turn. Improving this would require a Y shape because the existing drive cannot be widened due to restrictions on both sides. On the south side is a valve for the water lines, and on the north side a ditch with an 18 inch culvert that runs under the highway. Over a year and a half has passed.

Of course this is state highway property. They have right-of-way 30 feet from the center line, so I had to contact the state highway department about making this change. The local supervisor came out and went over the situation with me, then presented it to his supervisor. Before anything was decided there was a change of personnel and he had to go over it with another supervisor. This happened three times. He was then transferred into a different division for four months, and with these delays another year and a half had dragged on with no decision.

I was finally able to get the district supervisor out, went over it with him, and a couple of weeks later was granted a permit for the needed work. However, it seems the rules had changed about three months earlier. Prior rules required me to purchase the culvert pipe and the highway department would do the work. With the new rules I had to hire a private contractor to do the work as well as pay for the culvert, then have the highway department come out and approve the work once it was finished. About four times as much as it would cost for just the culvert. I had obtained the estimate from the private contractor, then got a bit peeved thinking about how it was costing me a lot more money because the state had dragged their heels. I sent the Governor an email laying this all out.

Two days later I received a return email from the Governors office informing me this had been turned over to the Secretary of Transportation for review and action. The day after that I received a call from the district supervisor informing me they were going to do the work and all I had to do was pay for the culvert. I had been grandfathered in. The culvert is paid for and waiting at the local building supply house, and the first day next week with good weather I'm finally going to get the work done. Once that's completed I'll have the county representative back out to approve the new entrance so the county will take over maintenance. Now I guess I'll have to talk with the local postmaster to find out what I have to do to get the mail service down this lane. Three years and counting. Ain't bureaucracies fun?

Winter Driving

It always worries me this time of year when I plan any distance traveling, so it was with some trepidation that we started a journey to South Carolina this past week. Our grandson was graduating from basic training at Fort Jackson. We wanted to attend this ceremony, then bring him back with us for a week's visit before his next assignment. If we were going to have ice anywhere the weather seemed perfect for that. It rained on us the full 470 miles down there, then again on the return trip. Graduation day was overcast but no rain, and the temperatures were in the mid seventies so that went well. We'd driven down on Monday, attended the ceremony on Tuesday, and our plans were to drive back on Wednesday. Checking the weather forecast for here in Kentucky they were saying there was a possible ice storm coming in on Wednesday, so instead of our planned departure we went to bed early on Tuesday, got up at two in the morning, and left our hotel at 3 heading home. Fortunately the temperatures did not drop as far as forecast and we arrived home to a 38 degree day. Now as to the rain. It was the kind of rain that wears out the windshield wiper controls. Turn it on, turn it up, turn it down, turn it off, back on, high speed, intermittent, faster, slower, the whole round trip. I think I used up most of the reservoir of windshield cleaner. We started out in a white car and came home in a two tone car that was white on top and black on the bottom. It's obvious that tires wear out with the amount of rubber deposited daily on the highways and Interstate system. Of course one of the big drawbacks is, it's not safe to drive in the rain with the cruise control engaged. I love cruise control and will run with it engaged as much as possible, but this trip required the foot on the accelerator the whole way.During a two day period, Fort Jackson was graduating a thousand new soldiers from basic training, and that's just one of many such forts in the U.S. It's amazing the number of enlistments they receive in this all volunteer military. I had the pleasure of speaking with several of the young men and women that were graduating that day, and what a wonderful group of people they were. At least outside the political arena, our country is in good hands.