News from Sept. 29, 2005 issue

US 641 route announced
The Kentucky Department of Highways has announced the location for the southern section of the U.S. 641 four-lane that will eventually connect Marion to the West Kentucky Parkway.

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The new U.S. 641 highway will be built in two sections. The north section, which is beginning the pre-construction right-of-way phase, will begin near the city limits of Marion and go 5.6 miles to just north of Fredonia near Livingston Creek. The northern section will affect almost 70 parcels of property. The money for buying those pieces of land was recently released by the state.

The southern section, also called Phase 2, will take the highway from Fredonia to the parkway east of Eddyville near where the parkway currently crosses U.S. 62, according to information released late last week by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

Fourteen routes were originally considered for the southern section. Following an initial screening process, eight alternates were selected for more detailed evaluation.

According to District One transportation engineer Tim Choate, planners are recommending that the route follow old U.S. 641 as closely as possible as it heads south from Fredonia.

"After coming around the west side of Fredonia, the corridor south of Fredonia shifts east to more closely follow the alignment of present-day U.S. 641," Choate said in a news release issued Friday by the department of highways.

"It connects with the existing right-of-way southwest of the Fredonia rock quarry. The corridor alignment also provides better access to the West Park Industrial Park and the Fredonia quarry to move truck traffic more quickly to the new four-lane," Choate said.

Utilizing some of the existing U.S. 641 right-of-way between Fredonia and Eddyville also helped minimize the impact on farmland and wildlife habitat along the 9.5-mile route.

"Any portions of the old U.S. 641 that do not get incorporated into the new road will remain for local traffic or become a frontage road," Choate added.

When the road reaches Eddyville, planners concluded that the new U.S. 641 should connect with the Wendall Ford West Kentucky Parkway at Exit 4. Choate notes that taking the new road directly to the parkway is only about 1.5 miles east of the present U.S. 641 intersection with U.S. 62 at Eddyville.

Leaders in Marion had originally supported a more direct route to I-24 west of Eddyville. However, they say the highway department's plan to take U.S. 641 to the West Kentucky Parkway will be okay.

"If this is the best and shortest route that means it will be the least expensive to build and maybe that means the state will build it quicker," said Lee Conrad, director of the Crittenden County Economic Development Corporation. "For our economic purposes, we simply need a road that will provide safe, quick access to the parkway and interstate system.

"The state's proposed southern route for U.S. 641 will go right beside the West Park Industrial site near Fredonia and that is a very critical part of the planning," Conrad said.

Judge-Executive Fred Brown said he doesn't particularly like the state's proposed route, but isn't going to fight it and take a chance on delaying the entire project.

State officials say that by connecting with the parkway at Exit 4 instead of I-24, the new U.S. 641 will get traffic to the parkway/interstate system more quickly.

"It also saves some $25 million or more that it would cost to go five miles to the west to connect directly with Interstate 24 west of Eddyville," Choate said.

With plans calling for I-69 and I-66 to eventually travel down the Wendall Ford West Kentucky Parkway, Choate explains that having the new U.S. 641 connected directly to the four-lane system meant more efficient traffic flow.

"From a system standpoint, this provides a better system flow by tying the new four-lane into the parkway rather than tying it into 62 and having to make several turns and go through additional intersections to get on the parkway or to connect to I-24," Choate said. "When I-69 and I-66 are routed down the parkway this will provide an even more critical link tying Marion and Fredonia directly into an interstate network."

Estimated cost of design and construction of the new four-lane is $91 million. That is in addition to an estimated $44 million for the 5.6 mile section in Crittenden County. The transportation cabinet recently approved $3.5 million to begin purchase of right-of-way on the section from Marion to the Crittenden-Caldwell line at Fredonia.

Ted Merryman, chief district engineer for the department of highways, says the new U.S. 641 from Marion to Eddyville will tie into additional improvements along U.S. 60 north of Marion toward Henderson. A four-lane section from Morganfield to Henderson is currently in design phase.

The next step toward building the Fredonia to Eddyville section of U.S. 641 is the design phase.
"We'll be doing aerial photography along about a 2,000-foot corridor from Fredonia to Exit 4 on the parkway," Merryman said. "That will include photography of the existing 641 alignment. We'll design a couple of alternates within that corridor. We won't be able to tell how much of existing U.S. 641 will be used until we get farther along in the process."

Near the present U.S. 641 entrance to the West Kentucky Correctional Center the new road would veer east of the current road to skirt the prison complex and follow the edge of the new industrial park. Merryman says the design will take into account comments of corrections officials who voiced concern about having the new road run too closely to the correctional facility.

It will be about a year before the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has preliminary design proposals for the southern section. Once the design proposals are ready, the public will be allowed to have input.

The Department of Highways Six-Year Plan has roughly $1.5 million earmarked for design work on the Caldwell/Lyon County section in 2005, but that expenditure has not been authorized yet. Right-of-way, utilities and construction work could be added to the Six-Year Plan that will come out of the 2006 legislature, Choate said.

School salaries don't hold mark
In a regional comparison of salaries, Crittenden County teachers are paid pretty well starting out but those with 20 years experience earn less than teachers in surrounding counties.

The same analysis of employee wages in 17 surrounding school districts show bus drivers and cooks in Crittenden County make $1 to $4 less per hour than those surveyed.

Finance officer Brent Highfil presented the salary comparisons to the Crittenden County Board of Education last week, reporting that in some areas Crittenden County is competitive and others it is not.

"It's a good idea every few years to take a look and see if we're keeping up with the competition," Highfil said. In terms of first-year teachers, Crittenden county ranks near the top with an average salary of $30,204. McCracken County's first-year teachers make the most among the districts surveyed at $32,044 and Union County the least at $27,608.

Each of the tables Highfil prepared showed teacher salaries here are below the average the longer they are in the school system. For example, teachers with 20 years experience and Rank I certification, which includes a master's degree and 30 hours above, are the third-lowest paid in the region. Only Fulton and McLean county teachers make less than Crittenden's $48,214. McCracken County teachers, who are among the highest paid in nearly every category, earn $55,062 for Rank I with 20 years experience.

Superintendent John Belt called the presentation very enlightening, and said some of the salaries may be further reviewed and addressed at a later date.

Instructional assistants, bus drivers, custodians and cooks are among the lowest paid according to the comparison, earning up to $1-$4.46 less than their counterparts in area counties.

Bus drivers in Crittenden County are the lowest paid at $8.35 per hour compared to $11.47 per hour in Owensboro Public Schools. Cooks with 20 years experience are the second-lowest at $9.23 compared to the highest paid in Hopkins County at $12.96 per hour.

Marion man dies on WK Parkway
A Marion man died Sunday when the motorcycle he was driving crashed into a tree that had fallen across the West Kentucky Parkway in Hopkins County.

James R. Waide, 58, of Travis Street died at the scene after his 2003 Harley Davidson rammed into the tree that had fallen and partially blocked the righthand land of the westbound parkway.

According to the Kentucky State Police report, Waide's motorcycle traveled about 100 yards before he was thrown off of it. Waide was wearing a helmet. The accident happened at 7:10 p.m., just after dusk near the 40 mile marker. Troopers Shane Fowler, Mike Manzanares and Sgt. Carolyn Boyd investigated the accident. Hopkins County Fire and EMS and the Hopkins County coroner were also dispatched to the scene.