Taylor takes over as board president

The Marshall County Board of Supervisors appointed District 3 supervisor Keith Taylor president of the board and District 4 supervisor George Zinn III vice president for the new year.

District 2 supervisor Eddie Dixon was due to rotate from vice president to the president's spot but declined, saying he has illnesses in his family and has to travel often. He did not want the responsibility since he might have to miss some meetings. That left Taylor and Zinn to come up in the rotation and District 5 supervisor Ronnie Joe Bennett to rotate off the president's spot.

The board of supervisors also reappointed all positions such as board attorney, county engineer, county administrator and zoning director.

Projects Supervisors were apprised of progress on construction in the Highway 72 area of Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park. The opening of Gateway Global Drive all the way through from Post Cereal to McCormick on Highway 302 was discussed.

Taylor said he wants to recognize some people and honor them with a ribbon-cutting for their contributions to the park.

The sewer connection in the park near Niagara Bottling sometimes gets overloaded when a large quantity of water is released, said county engineer Larry Britt. The county will apply money in an Appalachian Regional Commission grant toward relieving the overload when large quantities of water are dumped at once.

Jackson

Supervisors, Britt and consultants went to Jackson to the Legislature the first full week in January. They expected to discuss their needs with the lieutenant governor and other power brokers to get a sense of funding possibilities this year.

Several projects are of concern, including a bridge on Clear Creek Road.

Micro-seal projects are holding up pretty well, according to Bennett. He said cold weather and rain are hard on asphalt but dry weather is just as bad and will cause the cracks under the surface to split open and crack the asphalt surface.

Supervisors are not building new roads now but instead are trying to maintain the existing surfaces in as good a condition as can be.

Supervisors wanted to know what is left over in State Aid funds.

Britt said there may be as much as $180,000, and it will be used here with permission. The money can only be spent on State Aid roads, and no new State Aid roads may be built until they are brought up to State Aid standards, he said.

"So, if they are not up to State Aid standards, you have to make a new project," he said.

Whaley visits Sen. Neal Whaley came by the boardroom to explain his recent absence during a meeting of the local delegation with supervisors in December. He said he has had "a lot of things to pop up." Family and business have been factors, he said. Whaley said he does not

know what will take place in Jackson this term. But he is interested in education and mental health and corrections, he said.

"If you need me, call me or I will not know you want questions answered," he said.

Whaley and Sen. Kevin Blackwell are members of the local delegation in the Senate.

He said he has discussed several projects with Blackwell.

"It takes a while to establish a presence (in the Legislature) and I want to build on my time and experience so far," he said.