Emergency soil-nail stabilization completed after February slide; county explores buying equipment for repairs

Dude Wilburn, Franklin County's road supervisor, updated the fiscal court on road operations and recent emergency stabilization work, saying crews finished mowing, spraying and patching assignments and that an emergency contract addressed an embankment slide from February flooding.

"They finished up Monday... it's pretty expensive fix, but it was what had to be done or we was going to lose our road," Wilburn said of the work performed by contractor GSI, which installed soil nails to stabilize the bank.

Wilburn said the county repaired a slide earlier in March but the embankment continued to move toward the creek, prompting an emergency contract to avoid losing the roadway. The court discussed whether to install guardrail and the continued need for delineators and monitoring at the site.

Magistrates pressed staff on the hours and manpower behind mowing and maintenance work on large county-owned parcels, suggesting the court consider contracting out routine bush-hog mowing to free staff for other priorities. The court also authorized advertising sealed bids for annual road materials (stone, asphalt, concrete pipe).

The judge updated the court on FEMA coordination and said federal reimbursements remain limited while the presidential signature on a broader public emergency declaration is pending — currently assistance is focused on individuals. Court members said they are exploring purchasing specialized equipment (a pile driver or similar) to perform some repairs in-house with anticipated FEMA reimbursement, and they asked staff to return with cost estimates and next steps.

The court voted to advertise for sealed bids and included road-material procurement among items proceeding in the voting session.