RISON - County Judge Jimmy Cummings told the Cleveland County Quorum Court Monday night that he will pursue state grant money to replace four bridges along county roads that the state has declared need to be upgraded.
Meanwhile, the quorum court also approved a new ordinance that provides guidelines for the construction of private roads that will be accepted into the county road system.
Both of those matters and others were addressed by the Cleveland County Quorum Court during its regular monthly meeting Monday night at the Hall-Morgan Veterans Building in Rison.
The state, Cummings said, recently inspected all the bridges along county roads within the county and found one bridge on Prairie Road that needed to be replaced and four others that needed major renovations.
Cummings said the state wanted him to close a bridge along Prairie Road immediately after the inspection, but he said he was able to get the state to allow him 90 days to address the issue. He reported Monday night that the bridge in that location was replaced with a six-foot arch pipe, and has satisified the state's requirements.
Meanwhile, Cummings listed four other bridges that did not fail inspection, but were deemed in need of attention. "These bridgrs haven't failed yet, but that could happen fairly quickly," he told the court.
The bridges in question are located on Tolefree Road in the New Edinburg area; over Cottonmouth Creek along Prairie Road in the Kingsland area; over Panther Creek along Joe Huntley Road in the Kingslsand area; and over Blakely Creek on Neeley Loop in the Pansy area.
Rather than trying to shore up the bridges, Cummings said he would rather pursue a state grant to replace all four of them. He estimated it would cost between $400,000 and $500,000 to replace all four. Under the grant program, Cummings said the state would pay for 90 percent of the cost while the county would be responsible for the other 1...
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