The Jackson County Commission will decide at its January meeting whether to permanently close Tom Allen Lane and Webster Branch Lane.
At issue, a lack of maintenance on the roads over a long period of time. County Mayor Randy Heady said there is controversy regarding the closing of the roads from residents who want the roads closed and those who do not.
“We just want to do what’s best for our community, the commission it does,” Heady said. “You know, you really labor over these decisions. These are tough. Small counties like us, these are things rural counties go through this all the time. It’s pretty normal. I hate it, but that’s what we’re doing.”
The County Commission voted Monday night to table voting on the road closures until their next meeting. The motion came after the commission met with its lawyer privately in executive session. The issue goes next to the Road Committee for review. There will be a 30 minute public hearing before the vote on January 22.
“County’s not maintained those roads in many, many years, decades,” Heady said. “But you have property owners who don’t want them closed and you have property owners who do want them closed and that’s unfortunate. We’ve done 46, and 44 out of 46 went real good, and these last two have not went good.”
Mayor Heady said the roads are still on the road list. The board will be voting on removing them from that list next month.
Commissioner Darrell Church made the motion to table the vote until the next meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
“Well I think it’s something that needs to be done,” Church said. “I think we should table it until the January meeting and vote on it then. I mean, that gives you time to notify people that we are going to be voting on whether or not we’re going to be closing this or opening.”
In other business the county voted on a budget amendment to allow the school system to move Innovated School Grant money to meet the grant requirements. They also voted on another budget amendment to pay for juvenile offenders being held in Putnam County facilities. The board also approved the road department to sell some equipment not in use.
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