The Hawkins County Road Committee voted to approve the county’s road-name list for 02/2025 and discussed a resident’s request for a culvert extension and related road work on New Salem Road.

The committee, with four members present, moved to approve the road-name list and members indicated unanimous assent; the motion carried. Earlier in the meeting the committee also approved minutes from its Sept. 4, 2024 meeting.

During public comment, a resident described a property near New Salem Church where a stream crosses several parcels and asked the county to install an additional tile (culvert) to provide water flow and access to an outlying parcel. The resident provided photographs and described the location as roughly 200 yards south of the cabin and referenced the house address as 698 DuSable Road, New Salem. Committee members and staff discussed pipe size and right-of-way constraints; one participant estimated the existing pipe “looks like it's about 30 inch.”

County staff agreed to follow up. A staff member asked the resident to mark the shoulder where the new pipe would be located so staff could identify the exact spot in the field. Committee members suggested that Commissioners Thacker and Jones meet with the resident and county staff to view the site and determine whether replacement or extension is feasible. A county staff speaker said, “If it's on the right of way and it's already installed and it's rusted out, we'll replace it. If he's wanting a new tile and there's not one there, he purchases it; we installed it.”

The committee also discussed a cemetery access road the resident said may require a 75-foot turnaround to meet county specifications for school-bus access; the resident said the property owner may instead create a loop road around the cemetery and build it privately, after which the county could review it for adoption if it meets county standards.

Separately, a committee staff member addressed public questions about who maintains which roads: “There’s a very simple way to tell them without doing all that. The road's got a name, it's county maintained. If it's got a number, it's state maintained. And if it's in city limits, the city ... is responsible for it.”

No final determination on the water-line/culvert installation was made during the meeting; staff and two commissioners agreed to inspect the site and report back to the committee.