Eyes on the Road: Mondo Cima talks recent improvements in Whitley’s District 2

A stretch of the recently re-paved Black Diamond Rd. in Corbin

Mondo Cima, who is currently in his second term as magistrate of Whitley County’s District 2, says there is never a shortage of projects that require attention in Corbin proper and surrounding areas, such as Tattersall, Oak Grove, Hightop, Barton Mill and Mastertown.

“Roads are usually among the main concerns,” Cima explained, adding that the rising cost of blacktop in recent years has added a level of difficulty when trying to obtain the funds necessary to get those jobs done.

However, when a particular road becomes a hazard to travel on, then a magistrate, like Cima, must find a way to work with fellow county and state-level officials in order to ensure that the problem gets addressed. Case in point, the roughly $425,000 improvement project that was recently completed on Black Diamond Road, which connects Hightop Road to 5th Street Road (KY-727) in Corbin.

“The biggest project that we’ve had [in District 2] lately has been on Black Diamond Road,” Cima said. “It started about three years ago. We wanted to get it widened out so that it would be safer to travel on, so we started cutting out banks and using gravel to make it wider.”

Cima said that funds were secured from the state to complete the road improvement project, but by the time blacktop was ready to be laid down cost had risen sharply.

“We had to go back and obtain some additional funds,” Cima said. “But in the end, we were able to widen the road out from 15-16 feet on each side to about 19-20. We made it safer for school buses, and for larger work trucks. There is also some boat traffic on that road with the nearby dock on Hightop.”

So, how does a road improvement project like the one on Black Diamond come to be?

Cima explained that, as a magistrate, a big part of his job is to work with the other magistrates and the county judge executive in order to oversee the county’s finances, vote on the payment of bills, and approve annual budgets. As part of this process, if there are any specific projects in his district that he feels need to be addressed, he can suggest that they be considered for funding.

In the case of Black Diamond Road, Cima said that the potential safety hazards were probably the biggest reason that the project was able to come to fruition, and was also a big reason why the county was able to get the state on board with providing additional funding to get the job done.

In addition to attending fiscal court meetings and voting on various expenditures, Cima said he will regularly drive around his district in order to keep any eye out for different situations that may require attention, especially during times of severe weather when tree and/or snow removal from roadways could become necessary.

In sum, a magistrate is responsible for being an active representative for the people living in his-or-her district. This means relaying messages to higher-level county and state officials about important issues that will, hopefully, make life better for everyone in those particular communities. This could take many forms, from filling in a particularly troublesome pothole, to obtaining a much-needed piece of equipment, to making sure overgrown trees don’t become a potential safety hazard to travelers on nearby roads.

One other project that Cima is excited about concerns a study that is currently ongoing in the county relating to the expansion of reliable broadband internet service.

“There is quite a bit of money out there available for broadband,” Cima said. “We have a group coming in to do a study for where it is needed most here, and once it is done we will be able to apply for the grant money needed to make sure people have reliable internet all over the county.”

Cima said that other districts will likely benefit more from this effort than his, considering the fact that there are more remote areas elsewhere in the county, but he is excited about the prospect of expanding reliable internet service across the general area.

Finally, Cima encouraged everyone traveling through District 2 in the near future to be extra careful while out on the roads. Although he does not have direct involvement with the major road work that is taking place on Cumberland Falls Highway in south Corbin and the installation of a new roundabout on 5th Street Road near Corbin Primary School (both of these are state-level projects), he does receive regular updates on both. He said that, while these projects should improve traffic flow considerably in these areas once completed, added caution should be used while navigating through active work zones in the coming weeks and months.

Look in next week’s edition to read comments from another one of Whitley County’s local magistrates.