Kenton County mayors and other local officials and administrators considered ways to handle the county’s fragmented road ownership structure and the problems it presents for managing road repairs this week.
The discussion took place at Saturday morning’s meeting of the Kenton County Mayors Group at the Ludlow Community Center. The informal group meets monthly to discuss countywide topics and address various issues in their individual cities. There are 19 cities in Kenton County.
Ownership of roads throughout the county is split between city-owned roads and roads owned by the state, the latter of which are managed by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, often shortened to KYTC. Many cities have a combination of both municipal roads and state roads, and this can sometimes create inconsistencies in road repair times and management, even within the same geographic area.
Saturday was not the first time the mayors have expressed frustration with the cabinet. Representatives from the cabinet did not attend the meeting.
Moreover, the differences in road ownership can sometimes lead to confusion among residents asking for repairs on certain roadways, as local officials sometimes have to tell them that it’s out of their hands.
“I hate when [residents] call and complain and you’re like, ‘well, sorry, but that’s a state road,‘” said Fort Wright Mayor Dave Hatter. “It sounds like you’re just trying to offset responsibility.”
The state, counties and cities can swap ownership – Boone County recently did this with Hicks Pike and Chambers Road – but whoever takes on ownership of a road takes on any expense it takes to maintain it. For smaller cities, this may not be fiscally feasible, so the mayors discussed ways to get around this quandary.
“I mean, the optics are really horrible,” said Park Hills Mayor Kathy Zembrodt. “If you take the view from a resident, and we’re sitting there pulling our plows up… we’re fixing potholes along one of our roads, and then there’s this glaring one right at the corner that’s on a state road–I mean, of course we’re going to get residents think that we’re completely stupid.”
The county actually maintains an interactive online map that residents can use to identify roads throughout the county, who owns them, and who to contact with inquiries and complaints. A small version of the map is embedded below. Residents can also visit the map’s main page to use a larger version.
Kenton County Administrator Joe Shriver discussed the county’s experience with the same issue, noting that the state cabinet was occasionally short-staffed in the past. So, the county reached an agreement whereby the two agencies could share the load, so to speak.
“We went into an agreement with the state,” Shriver said. “We finally said, ‘if you guys reimburse us for the supplies and our labor, we will do minor maintenance, not reconstruction. We won’t take on the road. We won’t do those things, but we will address problems much of the time.'”
The mayors expressed interest in this arrangement, and Shriver said he’d be willing to share a copy of the county’s contract with them.
Kentucky Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, a Republican from Alexandria, discussed a similar agreement in Fort Thomas. Independence Mayor Chris Reinersman said Independence had also come to a similar agreement about pothole maintenance.
No official actions were taken at the meeting.