Higher costs

derail some

county roads'

progress
By Scott Nicholson

The Watauga County Board of Commissioners received a list of $3.1 million worth of improvements to state roads Monday night.

North Carolina Department of Transportation engineer Michael Poe presented the plan and said some of the spot improvements had been pushed back four years because of funding shortages, and he said priority roads not funded would appear on the next secondary-roads list. He said costs of road construction had risen about 80 percent over the last six-to-eight years.

Road improvements on the list include $1.8 million for increased funding for Guy Ford, Ridge, Laurel Creek, Ward Branch and Peoria roads.

Other allocations include $205,000 for Andy Hicks Road, $100,000 for Brookshire Road, $120,000 for Archie Carroll Road and $250,000 for Rich Mountain Road. Total improvements would pave 1.24 miles of gravel roads.

Alternative routes for paving include Herb Thomas Road and Big Branch Road, which would move up the ranking list if right of ways aren’t secured for the proposed projects. Another $250,000 is earmarked for road improvements at the new high school in Boone, and another $124,000 is for various road maintenance and spot-paving projects.

A woman asked for improvements on Old Mountain Road, off Old Andy Hicks Road, and said there were 13 homes and a church over six-tenths of a mile. “We sort of feel left out on that road because it’s a dead-end road,” said Donna Rominger Baeer, adding four more homes are scheduled for construction. The road is ranked 44th on the priority list, according to Poe, and he said the inventory lists are reviewed every year.

The commissioners can make recommendations for changes to the priority list, but the final decision rests with the N.C. Board of Transportation. The commissioners took no action on the road-improvements list.

Barnhill/Vannoy engineer Mike Kesterson presented an update on new school construction, and said the project was 18 percent complete and two weeks ahead of schedule. He said structural steel should be in place within a week.

Boone fire chief Reggie Hassler said the fire departments have “hashed out boundaries” for a minor change of fire districts and said 90 to 95 percent of the homes in the county were within five miles of a fire department.

The maps were adjusted to enable all homes to have a fire department within six miles.

Hassler said the coverage districts could already be changed, but the fire tax districts wouldn’t be changed until the next budget year. The change would also have to be approved by the N.C. Department of Insurance.

Hassler said only about 250 parcels of land would be changing fire-tax districts.

Watauga County elections director Jane Hodges presented a grant application request to operate five one-stop, early-voting sites for the General Election. The county is seeking $81,000 of $2.75 million in available state funds set aside for one-stop locations.

The commissioners discussed trapping of coyotes after hearing complaints about the predators. State law allows coyote trapping from Nov. 7 to Feb. 12. Bob Richardson, an official with the North Carolina Trapping Association, said expanding the fox-trapping season would help with the coyote problem.

Watauga County currently has no fox-trapping law and the commissioners agreed to research the issue.

The commissioners appointed Lee Stroupe as an extraterritorial jurisdiction representative on the Boone Board of Adjustment and Bob deCamara as an alternate.