Warren County supervisors discuss delayed work on Redwood Road

Published 1:15 pm Friday, March 17, 2023

The Warren County Board of Supervisors held a working session on Monday morning. Topics of discussion included delayed construction on Redwood Road, the possibility of using a timber harvester’s boat as a temporary replacement for the King’s Point Ferry and live streaming county meetings.

District 1 Supervisor Edward Herring mentioned that he is concerned about work not being done on Redwood Road.

“We’ve had it closed for two weeks and zero work was performed,” Herring said.

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The contractors apparently gave two excuses for the delay, the first being that an industrial drill bit had been broken and needed time to be replaced. The other was that a crane operator scheduled to perform work was required to be recertified in a four-day training session.

“We just severed another major thoroughfare for emergency vehicles, school buses, everything, (with them) knowing (they) had four days of training,” Herring added.

District 4 Supervisor Dr. Jeffery Holland asked about accountability for time wasted on the road closure, to which County Engineer Keith O’Keefe replied that there was nothing in the contract stipulating dates. The supervisors then discussed possible contract changes that could prevent a similar issue in the future, and work is scheduled to resume shortly.

District 5 Supervisor Kelle Barfield discussed the possibility of using a timber harvesting company’s boat as a substitute for the King’s Point Ferry for the next few years for moving road work equipment to and from the island. The board has been considering the privatization of the current ferry for some time, although the details of how that will work have not yet been set in stone.

Barfield said Ernest Moore, owner and operator of the Good Hope Land and Timber Management company, had reached out to her recently and explained that he had negotiated the felling and sale of timber with a number of King’s Point residents, a project he expects to last about four years. Barfield said that he was open to the idea of working out a deal with the county to allow access to his boat.

The supervisors also spoke about a plan to start live-streaming the County Board of Supervisors meetings. The last step will be finalizing a contract with a videographer, which is expected to be addressed at the meeting to be held this coming Monday.

The next Warren County Board of Supervisors meeting will take place on Monday at the Warren County Courthouse on the second floor at 9 a.m., and is open to the public.