Fiscal Court takes emergency action to fix slide impacting two Whitley roads

The Whitley County Fiscal Court is hoping that an emergency measure Monday night to adopt a road into the county road system will enable it to fix a slide that has been impacting two roads in the eastern portion of Whitley County.

During a special called meeting Monday, the fiscal court adopted Mitchell Powers Road into the Whitley County road system with a single resolution.

Whitley County Attorney Bob Hammons noted that it is customary to have two readings of an ordinance before adopting a road into the county road system, but that the county could declare the situation an emergency and adopt the road with a single resolution.

The slide in question is affecting not only Mitchell Powers Road but also Upper Mulberry Road, which was already a county road that lies below Mitchell Powers Road.

Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. said that he isn’t sure how long the slide has been taking place, but that it has become a major issue over the past few weeks.

There was one recent instance where an ambulance couldn’t get to a home due to the slide.

The slide is directly affecting a shop and three homes off Mitchell Powers Road, but is also impacting Upper Mulberry Road, which is an already narrow road being utilized by coal trucks accessing a nearby coal mine.

"It has been coming out into our road. As we have been removing material from the bottom trying to keep it off our road, we are making it worse on top," White said. "It needs to be something that we fix altogether."

By adopting the road Monday, the county can repair the actual slide on Mitchell Powers Road, and also repair a back portion of that road that accesses another county road so that Mitchell Powers Road residents will have at least some access to their homes.

White noted that it sometimes takes quite a bit of time to permanently fix slides, which was part of the reason for calling Monday’s special meeting.

White said he isn’t sure how much or how long it will take to fix the slide portion of the problem, but that the other side of Mitchell Powers Road could probably be fixed in a matter of a couple of hours.

White said that the county has an agreement in place with the Alden Resources, the coal company mining in the area, to assist with the slide repair.

He said the company may assist with some of the costs or allow the county to use some of its equipment to fix the problem.

"We are happy that Alden Resources will partner with us that way to help make the road safe to travel," White added.