By John Howell

Supervisors and road manager Lygunnah Bean hammered out the county’s gravel and culvert policy Wednesday, continuing at special meeting a dialogue begun January 9.

Central to the conversation was a culvert placed at a location with a Barnacre Road address on a private drive.

“Which is weird,” Bean said, “because Barnacre is a public road. Here’s this person got a 911 address on Barnacre, … but when they got there, it was this road that (ran) from Barnacre that somehow … the county has given addresses on this side road with a public name.”

The discussion eventually included matters of road policy, employee discipline procedures and testing policy for operators of county vehicles.

Supervisor Cole Flint had questioned Bean about the culvert placement at the January 9 meeting, acknowledging that though the culvert reduced danger from a potential road hazard, it had been placed in a private drive. Flint said that Bean at the earlier meeting had said that the placement had been wrong and should have been handled differently.

“How do you reprimand somebody in your department, like on the driveway we’re talking about on Barnacre Road?” Flint asked Wednesday.

“By the handbook, or verbal,” Bean replied.

“With no written?” Flint interjected

“I write some and I verbal(ize) some,” Bean said.

“There’s no documentation you ever did it, though,” Flint said.

“I sat down with that individual, and I understand what went on,” Bean said. “I know why that happened and I felt, as a road manager, they didn’t need a reprimand.”

“There’s no documentation that ever happened, though,” Flint continued. “I think we need to be have some type of written documentation for everything we do,” he added.

Bean said the worker who received the work order to place the culvert, “thought it had a 911 address, it had a request (work order), he could put a driveway from a public road. That’s how the driveway ended up there.”

The road manager said that future driveway requests would have to be approved by foreman Raymond Mickens who would be aware if a location was not on a public road.

“How did we get a private road with the same name as a public road?” Bean asked.

“Well, you’re looking for a mess when an ambulance goes out there looking for something,” board attorney Bill McKenzie said.

“We need to go further than just getting upset about the driveway, it’s a bigger deal than just that,” Flint said.

Further discussion brought comments from supervisors about sizes of culverts and the number of culverts placed at a property.

“If we’re going to agree to put a culvert in to get you across from the highway to your property, are we going to limit the size of the culvert … That’s something that we have got to decide … on our culvert policy,” board of supervisors president Kelly Morris said.

Bean then presented each supervisor with a copy from a section of the Countywide Plan of Road Administration that included language stating the county, “will furnish culverts and gravel to allow the traveling public to exit the county road systems.” The plan was first adopted in 1989 and unanimously reaffirmed by supervisors last year when questions arose about culvert placement.

“What do y’all think about the culvert policy?” Bean asked them about it after some minutes of further discussion.

“It’s awful,” one supervisor replied.

“Well now’s a shot at it if you want to change it,” McKenzie replied.

“I need something to go by,” Bean said. “You guys need to get together and tell me what y’all want,” he added.

Morris said that the board would take the policy under advisement for study.

“And don’t throw in the towel quite yet,” quipped one supervisor, alluding to a statement Bean had made at the earlier meeting about placing culverts.

Other topics broached during January 18 meeting:

• Bean said that he had spoken with supervisors in Lafayette and Tate counties who had been thought not to furnish culverts for their constituents.

“That (isn’t) so,” Bean said.

“They’ve got loopholes;” Flint agreed. “Two of them will tell you one thing and another one will tell you something else,” he added.

• Responding to a question from Flint about the validity of commercial driver’s licenses held by operators of county equipment, Bean said that the county’s insurance carrier checks licenses. During a brief interview following the meeting, Bean said that employees are also subject to mandatory pre-employment and random drug testing. Any employee involved in an accident is also tested immediately afterwards, he said.