A Pike County official admitted Tuesday that illegal work had been performed a decade ago on a county road where an adjacent driveway is collapsing.
At Tuesday’s Pike Fiscal Court meeting, County Road Commissioner Jackie Darrell Smith told the court that illegal paving work was performed about a decade ago at Johnson Height at Raccoon Creek. The revelation came as Johnson Heights-resident Sherry McCoy again confronted the fiscal court about damage she alleges the county has caused to her driveway.
McCoy claims the county’s maintaining of a 425-foot stretch of Johnson Heights, on which no residences sit or driveways connect, is the cause of her driveway collapse over the past several years. She says large amounts of salt dumped by the county during the winter when salt trucks would turn in the area killed trees and vegetation and compromised the integrity of the hillside on which her driveway sits
McCoy’s driveway used to connect to Johnson Heights just past the section of the road included in the county road system. The county, however, had the road paved about 110 feet past that point. McCoy alleges the county maintained the road past the 425-foot mark for years, then suddenly stopped.
Her driveway collapse was apparently left as a burden for her to bear, even though it is the bank alongside the allegedly illegally-paved section of road that is slipping and taking McCoy’s driveway.
McCoy has been advised by Pike Deputy Judge-Executive Herbie Deskins to sue the county for the damage it allegedly caused. He repeated that advice during Tuesday’s fiscal court meeting.
According to the timeline given by Jackie Darrell Smith, the illegal paving work would have been performed during previous Judge-Executive Wayne T. Rutherford’s administration. Smith said the employee who had the illegal work done is now deceased.
McCoy said she is exploring legal options for the driveway issue.
[su_youtube url=”https://youtu.be/Sv5z9eTLVss” height=”340″]
