The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

State denies request of Millstone residents who want mini-park




Recently the residents of Millstone have been conducting a clean-up effort. More than three tons of garbage were collected on State Route 113. Several people suggested we put up a small area for residents to gather and possibly have a collective flower garden like we had at the post office.

I spoke with the state and was required to apply and give detailed blueprints. This week my permit was denied, evidently because it has a flowerpot that would deny access to the bridge. There would only be a 20’ wide access to the bridge, not wide enough to walk past.

I asked if I could put mobile pots of flowers just inside the guardrails, “denied.” I asked to put two park benches about 50’ on up “Buster Road,” “denied.”

I asked if I could fill the hole where we had removed so much garbage, rocks, old tires, etc., and level it and plant grass, “denied.”

Paul Newman, a lifelong resident of Millstone, laughed and asked if we were required to put all the garbage back in place.

It often makes you wonder what the state highway department does anyway. We picked up several road signs and returned them to the garage that had been knocked down 10 to 20 years ago.

A garbage truck ran over a hill at Millstone and The Mountain Eagle said it dumped 22 tons of garbage in the river. That road has a 22-ton weight limit on it, so that truck was overweight by its entire weight.

That is the sixth large truck that has gone over that hill, taking large chunks of the road with it, and not once has it ever been repaired.

Seventeen vehicles have gone over that hill, and two people were killed, yet the state will not put up guardrails.

The owner of the adjacent property offered the state 30 feet of land to put up rails (20 years ago). You would think that the DOT officers that sit between Whitesburg and Pikeville “fee grabbing” would cite these trucks that present such a danger to the public on such an inadequate road.

Between Kona and Millstone you can see stumps where there were guardrails 50 years ago, but never replaced. There is a drop of over 50 feet there on a bad curve where dozens of people have gone over.

I live two miles from where I was born, and I have “never” seen the state pick up the garbage. The county did once, several years ago.

It seems as if Millstone will continue to go without water or a park, but we will always get the county’s garbage. JERRY COLLINS Millstone



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