Giles County Highway Committee Meeting Minutes for May 7, 2026
Members Present: Chairman Tracy Wilburn, Vice Chair Carman Brown, Secretary Joyce Woodard, Rick Carpenter, Matthew Hopkins, Evan Baddour, and Gayle Jones
Other Members Present: David Adams, Jim Lathrop, David Womble, Terry Jones, Annelle Guthrie, Rose Brown, Terry Jones, and Matt Rubelsky
Also Present: Gene Barnickle, Erin Harmon, Beth Moore-Sumners, and Shana Woodard
Meeting called to order at 9:00 am
Prayer by Terry Jones
Pledge by all
First Item of Business was to approve the minutes from March 2, 2026 Highway Committee Meeting. Matthew Hopkins made a motion to approve. Rick Carpenter seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion was approved.
Chairman Tracy Wilburn asked if there was any public comment on agenda items. There were none.
Second item of Business was a speed limit petition on Campbellsville Hill Rd. Road Superintendent Gene Barnickle stated that David Adams brought forth a petition to post Campbellsville Hill Rd at 35mph. Tracy Wilburn asked if this road is not currently posted, does it make the speed limit 55mph? Mr. Barnickle answered yes. Matthew Hopkins asked if there were an appropriate amount of signatures? Barnickle stated yes there were. Rick Carpenter made a motion to approve the speed limit. Matthew Hopkins seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion was passed.
Third Item of Business was to adopt Scenic Cove into the County Road system. Mr. Barnickle commented that if the committee remembers this was before them in the last meeting and was passed by the Highway Committee to accept but that evening at the Planning Commission meeting it did not have all the appropriate signatures. Since then, Billy Brown has gotten the signatures. It has past the planning committee and been filed in the County Clerks office. There is no motion needed.
Fourth item of business is an amendment for the Highway. Mr. Barnickle told the committee that he had worked with Beth to do a clean up amendment and that he would let her explain. Beth stated that they try to do a clean up from within each category. There is no new money except for at the bottom of the amendment the Highway Department is asking for $148,000.00 to come from the Highway’s fund balance. The Highway Department is wanting to purchase a backhoe now because of price increases going up July 1, 2026. Beth stated that she hoped this amendment would hold through June 30th and if it doesn’t, we will have an additional amendment at the end of June. Mr. Wilburn asked if there was any specific item that was changed other than the backhoe? Beth stated no, the rest is just moving from one line to another to clean up and no use of fund balance other than to purchase the backhoe. Mr. Wilburn asked if that would be considered a capital purchase and Beth stated yes, it would be. Gayle Jones asked about the fund balance and which fund it was coming from. Mr. Barnickle answered that it was coming from the Highway’s fund balance not the general fund. Ms. Jones then asked about the communication line and what it consisted of. Beth answered her to say that communications could be anything from the phone bills, cell phones, anything that could be tied into communication purposes. Mr. Barnickle let the committee know that the $148,000.00 he’s asking to get from his fund balance to purchase a backhoe will actually drop to $125,000 and he also stated that he has 9 pieces of equipment that will go on govdeals.com to sell to try and help offset the cost. With the 9 pieces from sell he’s gotten appraisals and would possibly be looking at 100,000 – $125,000 from selling those that he will then put back into his fund balance to help offset the cost of the new backhoe. There are no guarantees with this because of how govdeals.com goes. One of the pieces of equipment that will go into the sell is the long arm tractor that he has talked to the committee about before. It has been a problem for some time. It was the new holland that caught on fire and insurance paid $54,000 to fix but it wasn’t completely fixed. The transmission is down again. The tractor was sent to H&R Agri-power hoping that it would be something external but it was not. It is internal. It will not go into gear without growling. The brakes went out on this tractor at first and caused ground up metal fines to go through the system. A five-gallon bucket of metal fines was collected trying to clean them out. And when something like that happens it’s near impossible to get them all out and will always have problems. It looks like a great tractor from the outside and has an excellent long arm. Barnickle lets the committee know that he’s got a quote for a new long arm tractor for $204,895.14. He wants to let the committee know that it’s coming down the line and he’s been told as well that prices are going to increase for our new budget year. Terry Jones asked if the long arm could be kept from the new holland tractor and used with the new one? Mr. Barnickle says that he has considered that. The bracket will have to be changed because the new tractor is a John Deere and the cradle, pump, etc. is different. The long arm itself is $83,000.00. Terry says he didn’t think the long arm would bring that on govdeals. Mr. Barnickle agrees and says he will look into it because of the modifications that will be needed. Womble mentions that he would like to see the long arm kept as well. Womble also states that he would like Gene to tell everyone about the concrete pad that was poured to hold cold mix. Gene lets the committee know that a new concrete pad was poured by a few of the guys here at the Highway Department and the reason that it’s so important is that we make about 500 tons of cold mix at a time and we would lose 50-75 tons that got mixed into the ground and dirt and have wanted a pad for a long time so there isn’t waste. Rick Carpenter asked if we are tied to Rogers Group as far as getting clean rock. Gene responded that in a round about way we are tied on our washed rock because we would have to travel to Pottsville or Lewisburg but they are also owned by Rogers Group. Tracy Wilburn entertains a motion to approve the amendment. Carman Brown makes a motion to approve. Rick Carpenter seconds the motion. Tracy Wilburn asks if there is any more discussion? Evan Baddour asks if this puts a real big dent in the fund balance? He also adds with the addition to purchasing a new tractor? Gene responds that he is comfortable with it especially with selling the used pieces of equipment and those funds going back to the Highway’s fund balance. It’s something that he doesn’t want to make a habit of but he personally thinks with the situation that the Highway Department is in and the needs that he’s ok with using fund balance to purchase these items and the equipment being sold to help offset the funds. Beth the Director of Finance states that they are going to call a financial management meeting to dispose of the used equipment and are hoping to have this done quickly. That way the items will hopefully sell by June 30th. All are in favor of the amendment. Motion passes.
Fifth Item of Business is the Proposed Budget: Gene states that pretty much everything is the same as last years budget except for the equipment. He’s added the $450,000.00 back to the budget for an equipment line that was paid our of the 171 fund which is non reoccurring. He also wants to explain one thing about asking for that kind of money every year for an equipment line. Currently the Highway department has an inventory of $6,329,000 worth of equipment. This equipment wears and tears like anything else you use it is a large amount to have to keep up with and keep running. Looking the numbers $450,000 per year doesn’t seem like much to ask compared with what the Highway department has to maintain. Beth wanted to let the committee know that in this proposed budget the penny estimate is the same because she has no hard numbers from Tommy’s office yet. She just wanted to point out to the committee that obviously by the time they get to budget those adjustments can be made. The use of fund balance is showing $570,734.00 that is being used and that’s one of the most important things the commissioners should be looking at. At this time, she is ok with that however she states they we are just digging the same hole that we tried to get out of but when we shifted that equipment last year all we did was just gain a years’ time. She states that she thought a lot of commissioners already knew that last year and it worked but here we are with a budget putting it back where it belongs but we are showing the deficit. Can we buy another year? Absolutely we can she states. She points out that the cycle is starting all over again after just having a tax increase. She wants everyone to understand that this budget is doable but its’ just bidding time to where we are going to have to come back and readjust something. Gayle Jones asks about the Bridge Program line item and state aid programs have increased? Gene explains that yes, every year those lines increase from the state. If the funds are not utilized, they will roll over to the next year. Right now we have a bridge on Locke Rd that the state has said it needs to be replaced and the county is looking at that costing $950,000, plus engineering fees. Mr. Barnickle just wanted to share with the committee the cost of these things because as of right now the Highway Department only expecting $655,000 in bridge funds for the next fiscal year. Matthew Hopkins states that he agrees that the Highway Department should have an equipment line in the budget. But also states that if we are doing less miles paving they do we need the same amount of employees? Mr. Barnickle replies that yes he does. David Womble ask about employee raises being built into the new budget. Beth answered that yes there is a raise built in. The County officials are getting a 2.63% raise so all county budgets are proposing the same raise for employees. David Womble ask about the low water bridge on Dillon Ln. Mr. Barnickle states that he has to have funding for it. The County has the whole road and the estimate to repair the low water bridge was $48,000.00 and is ready to be started in July. David Womble ask if the Highway Department were asking for these funds in the proposed budget. Mr. Barnickle replied no the funding is not in the new proposed budget. Beth wanted to also add that they had unofficially heard that health insurance premiums are going up again around 10%. It is not an official number but the finance department wanted to make everyone aware and states that they have not even considered adding that to the budgets. Evan Baddour makes a motion to approve and send to budget. Matthew Hopkins seconds the motion. All are in favor and the motion is approved.
There was old or new business to discuss. Matthew Hopkins made a motion to adjourn. Evan Baddour seconded the motion. All were in favor and the meeting was adjourned.