Taylor Mill Mayor Daniel Bell announced Wednesday night that the city will get some state help with two streets that have been a problem for years.
“This is news that we got just yesterday,” Bell said during the regular council meeting. “The transportation commission requested and will receive state funding for Wolf Road. This relieves the city from having any cost expenditures for Wolf road. The county will now handle the engineering, they will take the $600,000 and fix Wolf road. We are no longer involved, the city of Covington is no longer involved and Fairview is no longer involved. So this takes a little burden off of us. And I want to thank Senator (Chris)McDaniel for that. He was able to assist us in getting those dollars for Wolf road.”
Wolf road will have $600,000 in funds to fix it, but Kenton County will receive the money to repair it. Wolf is a city road, but the bottom part belongs to Covington, and a small portion belongs to Fairview. A lot of the repair that has to be done is toward the bottom, but the damage is very costly because of slippage on the hillside. When the repairs first needed to be done, Taylor Mill said that a portion of the bottom part of the road belonged to Covington and that they would be responsible for the repairs, since they annexed part of the road.
Covington said they only annexed up to the road, and not the road, but Taylor Mill held that when a city annexes the road, it is common to have it annexed to the middle of the road. The issue has been in court, and cities are waiting on the outcome of the court battle. The damage on Wolf road will probably need pier wall work to shore up the slipping hillside.
Bell also pronounced Wayman Branch road in terrible shape, and said the state will be getting $500,000 toward fixing it, so the work will be done by district 6 of the Kentucky Transportation cabinet.
Mayor Bell said he hopes fixing the roads will help save lives. A few years ago, a grandmother and her grandchild died when their car left the roadway on Wayman Branch.
Wayman Branch had belonged chiefly to Covington, but a part of it was in Taylor Mill. In a street exchange with the state back in July of 2018, Wayman Branch became a state road, and Taylor Mill got Mason Road and Bud’s Way in the trade.
Bell acknowledged that he didn’t know if the money would cover all the repairs for the two roads, especially in light of all the recent price increases, but he was grateful for the help, and he suggested to the commissioners that they send a thank you note to Senator McDaniel.
Local government grant
Taylor Mill City Administrator Brian Haney told the commissioners that the city applied for a Land Water Conservation Grant for $90,000 last spring, and when they didn’t hear anything back, Haney assumed they didn’t get the grant.
Recently he found that the city did get a 50/50 match grant for $45,625, and if the city accepts they will match the grant for a total of $91,250.
The city plans to put the money into an amphitheater in Pride park. When the state did work on Pride Parkway, the city used some of the dirt to fill in a part of Pride park to level out a space for an amphitheater.
The money will be used for drainage at the bottom of hillside that was carefully graded for seating, and also to install electricity so that any performers who use the amphitheater can have electricity. It will also be used for a concrete base for the amphitheater.
Commissioners agreed to accept the grant money.
“We can’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” said Commissioner Rose Merritt, “but I don’t want the grant to in the end cost the city money.”
She explained that she thought the amphitheater could easily cost $200,000, because the costs have gone up so high, and the city needs to be very careful not to go over the amount of the grant.
CAO Haney said the city has a list of what they can do, and they have to stick to the list. He said if the money runs out, they may have to forego the canopy roof they planned to put on the amphitheater.
Commissioner Mark Kreimborg asked where the matching money will come from, and Mayor Bell said it would either come out of the general budget, or the ARPA money. He reminded commissioners that the city will receive a total of $1.7 million in ARPA money, and though a portion will be spent on fixing streets, they can take some for the amphitheater.
Residents and streets
A resident, Troy Williams, came to the council meeting along with several of his neighbors who all live on Parkview Drive, to ask if their street could be repaired, because it is in very bad shape. He told commissioners the city had promised to fix it last year.
“I’m not trying to be a nuisance, but I’m trying to make sure we’re not left off,” said Williams.
Mayor Bell explained that Parkview was on the list for last year, but the city asked the county if they would fix Parkview, and just add it on to their list. They agreed, but then ran out of time to complete their own streets, so Parkview was not fixed. The city now says it will fix the street, but it might take longer than a year. The street is asphalt on one end and concrete on the other end, where a lot of the damage is. Apparently it will be fairly easy to fix the asphalt end of the street, but the concrete end has serious drainage problems. Although the street is not too long, and has 14 residents, the city will have to fix the drainage problems this year, and the concrete might have to wait till next year.
Shawn Riggs, the city engineer, said that 75 percent of the street will have to be dug up and repaired, and the price of concrete has gone up astronomically.
Commissioners will discuss the budget at the caucus meeting on April 27 at 10 am to see when they can fix the street.
“We didn’t forget you,” Commissioner Caroline Braden told the neighbors. “We are glad you came.”
Pickleball courts
Taylor Mill resident Gary Massie came to the meeting with a slide show to plead for the city to put pickleball courts in Pride Park. Mayor Bell said they would take it under consideration.
