News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Fentress County Commission approved the hiring of an additional employee to help with road sign installation.
Commissioner Kim Davidson said the position was originally presented as a maintenance position instead with the Highway Department.
“The county is seriously behind on road signs we all agree across the board on that, we are in desperate need of doing it,” Davidson said. “So it had went to solid waste and they couldn’t put them up. So in knowing we were going to have to hire a position, the reason we talked about the second maintenance person is we have one maintenance person for the entire county.”
Davidson said the idea was to use the employee in a more efficient way. She said in events of bad weather where road signs could not be installed, the individual could help with general maintenance across the county.
Davidson said a contributing factor to the issue with road signs has been a lack of respect for signs and their importance. the building and grounds committee discussed future collaboration with law enforcement personnel. She said hopefully, having street signs installed more quickly and law enforcement working to prevent stolen road signs will help the county’s predicament.
“People have kind of made a mockery of signs, that’s something they think they can do for fun is go steal signs,” Davidson said. “And they don’t realize that if their grandpa or grandma needs an ambulance, it’s going to be hard to find them. So (Reed) has some good ideas in place to work with local law enforcement and judicial system to try and get harsher penalties for people who don’t realize what they’re doing. It’s not something to do for fun, it’s lives they’re putting in jeopardy.”
Highway Superintendent Ryan Reed said at $13 an hour he estimates the hire will require around $40,000 including other expenses like insurance. He said he has explored additional funding opportunities like grants.
The commission voted to hire the position to start the first of the year.
