Court authorizes judge executive to sign road ownership, maintenance swap with Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

The McCracken County Fiscal Court on Aug. 25 authorized the judge executive to sign a resolution and related documents formalizing a transfer of ownership and maintenance responsibility for specified roads between the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) and McCracken County.

Why it matters: The swap is intended to make maintenance, snow removal and mowing more efficient by aligning higher‑volume connector roads under state responsibility and lower‑volume residential segments under county control.

According to the court discussion, the agreement will give the state approximately 10.5 miles of high‑volume connector road while the county will accept roughly 4.3 miles of lower‑volume road better suited to the county maintenance system. The court cited specific examples such as New Hope Road (a busy three‑lane connector) becoming a state road and minor frontage or short sections below I‑24 being transferred to county maintenance to improve continuity for snow and mowing operations.

A motion to authorize the judge executive to sign the resolution and related documents was made, seconded and approved by voice vote in open session. Court members and KYTC personnel reportedly negotiated the trade over multiple meetings, and the court noted the change would reduce cross‑jurisdictional maintenance operations.

The court did not adopt any new maintenance funding as part of the resolution in open session; further administrative implementation details were not specified at the meeting.