Pair of fires leave county in need of motor graders

At Monday’s meeting, Randolph County Commission discussed the dire need of motor graders. The county lost two Cat motor graders in the last few weeks due to fire. The cause of the fires that destroyed the graders is still undetermined but could be related to a manufacturing defect.

At Monday’s meeting, Jay Wages of Tractor and Equipment in Oxford gave a presentation on Komatzu motor graders. Wages had submitted a quote and hopes to have a demo available for the commission to look at. The brand of graders comes with a 5-year, 3,000 hour warranty. A decision by the commission will come soon at an upcoming meeting.

Thursday visitor

At Thursday’s workshop, Faye Smith addressed the commission concerning the road she lives on, County Road 811.

“I am at your mercy,” she said. “We have ditches in the road that makes the bottom of my car scrape, trash is all over the road and in the ditches and sometimes it’s used as a motel. Ya’ll got to do something!”

The road is in Commissioner Brown’s district and he has looked at the road.

“We will do what we can, but without an engineer it’s hard to do anything right now,” he said. The commission will try to have some of the work release inmates take care of the trash and will see what work needs to be done.

Other business

In other business, the commission:

Approved a request from the revenue commissioner to reappoint Darlene Daugherty to the board of equalization for 45 days.

Approved for the chairman to enter into negotiations with an applicant for the county engineer’s position.

Announced the courthouse and annexes will be closed May 29 for Memorial Day.