Questions answered by Lamar Paris, County Commissioner
Q. We received an anonymous letter several weeks ago asking about the policy for driving county vehicles. What is the policy regarding county vehicles?
A. Other than emergency services, there are nine county vehicles that are driven home and none of these have school age children. Unless it is incidental to the job, no one other than county employees should be riding in a vehicle. There are exceptions such as a family emergency which could include a random passenger. Anyone riding in a county vehicle is covered under the county insurance, whether they are an approved passenger or not.
If anyone sees a county vehicle that they think is being improperly utilized, please feel free to call my office and your information will remain confidential.
***While we certainly hope the snow is over, here are some questions I received two weeks ago but had to leave out because of space.***
Q. We heard the county was out of salt and gravel? Is that true?
A. No, it is not true. We were within one day of being out of salt but we have now had a chance to resupply. We really never run out of gravel as long as Vulcan gravel quarry remains open. They are very good to open for us when we need assistance.
Q. How long does the salt that you spread last on the road?
A. This is a tough question. Usually, it will work to some degree as long as it is not washed, scraped or blown off the roadway. As long as the temperature is above 20 degrees the salt is pretty effective. However, once we have a rain, it is all gone.
Q. Does the county put pure salt on the highway?
A. No. We mix the salt with small gravel or sand so that not only will it last longer, but the other aggregate products help you to maintain traction on the icy or snowy road until the salt can melt the ice.
Q. Have you ever seen it snow so much before?
A. We have certainly had larger snowfalls in a winter, but I do not ever remember it snowing so often. This is Wednesday March 3rd, as I am writing this, and it has snowed all day and has been beautiful. We had a lot of accidents early in the day between 8:00 and 10:00 am when the hardest snow fell. It caught many people off guard. We have also had several large snowfalls predicted and they have simply not come to past this year, but today is a beautiful snow and as the day has progressed, the roads have become clearer as the outside temperature has remained in the 34 degree range.
Q. Will the new farmers market be ready for the season?
A. We are very hopeful that at least the new sheds will be ready this year by the opening in June. Architectural plans are being completed, most of the grading has been done and as soon as the weather lets up, we hope to begin construction. It will be very exciting for the public and because it will not be located at the courthouse, we will be able to have it open at least one week day in addition to Saturday.
Q. Where will the new farmers market be located?
A. The road is closed right now for construction, but you turn left just past Home Depot on Weaver Rd., go 1000’ and turn right on Old Smokey Rd. Continue 700 feet to the entrance on the right. Eventually, we hope to have a new cannery located there, as well as a possible commercial kitchen for preparing products for market.