Mt. Juliet, County appoint committees to discuss cost-share of road project

MT. JULIET — Both the county and the City of Mt. Juliet have now appointed committees to work together to reach a mutually acceptable funding formula to pay for an eastern connector that would make the road to the new Mt. Juliet High School safer.
Monday night at the city commission meeting Mayor Linda Elam appointed District 1 commissioner Ray Justice, city manager Rob Shearer and local banker and planning commissioner Phil Smart to a committee to work with a team from the county to figure out how to pay for the four mile road from I-40 to Highway 70. The connector will incorporate the section of Curd Road that includes the site of the new Mt. Juliet High School currently under construction.
Last week, the County Director of Finance Janice Branchaud appointed road commissioner Steve Armistead, financial management committee chair Bernie Ash and herself to the joint committee.
Along with this, city squires unanimously approved, on first reading, an ordinance that would give the go ahead for the city to fund the construction of the first 1800 feet of this eastern connector. They agreed to fast track this portion of the road that city planner Bobby Franklin estimated to cost $700,000. This was contingent on the U.S. Postal Service selecting a site in Mt. Juliet along the connector for a new postal sorting facility and this portion of the road's construction meet the government's timeline and be completed by Feb. 2008.
And while city commissioners agreed to this contingency, how to fund the majority of the connector will soon be hashed out between the county and the city.
"I'm anxious to begin our meetings," Branchaud said Monday afternoon. "Obviously the city sees this as so urgent they want us to get involved."
Time is of the essence on this road project. The city has been quietly acquiring the right of way along the four mile stretch.
Yesterday morning, Shearer said estimated cost of construction of the road is between $10-15 million. The engineering and design work has been started, with aerial photography scheduled this week, he said.
"It will be about nine months before it will be ready to let," he said.
Actual construction is estimated to take at least 18 months.
The current road to the new school is narrow, full of hair pin turns and has no shoulders.
"The reality is that the high school will open 2008 and when it happens thousands of teenagers will be driving on a road not safe for teen-aged drivers," Elam said before the meeting. "This needs to go as quickly as possible, and we've asked the county to help try to resolve the funding issues."
The road is split between county and city jurisdictions. As of Monday evening, no joint committee meeting to discuss the issue had been scheduled.
In other business, resolutions to authorize construction of an animal control facility on city property and to terminate an agreement between the City of Mt. Juliet and Fowlkes & Associates to continue progress on a recreation facility were postponed pending a plan Justice is working on that involves the purchase of a large parcel of land for sports fields.
Also, newly elected District 2 commissioner Will Sellers was sworn in as well as re-elected District 4 commissioner Jim Bradshaw.