Road Department employees voice concerns over ‘unsafe workplace’

By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1

Members of the Barren County Road Department, County Magistrates Tim Coomer and Derek Pedigo, Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd and County Attorney Mike Richardson gathered in the small side room of the department’s open-air facility for a special-called meeting of the Transportation Committee where road department employees aired some of their concerns.

The committee meeting was called to order promptly at 2:30 p.m. by Transportation Committee Chairperson Coomer. Due to personal appointment that put a time constraint on some employees, the committee addressed the third item on the sparsely populated four-item agenda, which is a discussion of the “concerns of the Barren County Road Department employees.”

Chad Livingston, a “senior” employee of the department, primarily lead the discussion. With him he brought some pictures he had taken showing the standing water coupled with “extension cords laying on the floor,” ill-maintained equipment — which is how Livingston said he was hurt back in 2018 — low lighting and the leaky roof.

“That’s just a few examples of the unsafe workplace,” Livingston said. “I’ve been injured so I’m speaking out for everybody. I’m looking out for everybody. I’m not trying to cause a big deal here but this needs to be addressed. I refuse to work in this shop [with these conditions].”

He also mentioned the lack of regular heat in the facility.

In response Byrd said she had already submitted an advertisement for a bid “package” looking at numerous issues needing to be addressed, including electrical work and roof repair.

“We did put in the paper a bid request for…work, renovations here and it included concrete work, electrical work, roof, installation and the restrooms,” Byrd said. “Basically it’s a total rehab without building or moving the facility.”

The bid request, Byrd said, is set to come back on March 15 at which point Byrd, and the magistrates, will evaluate which option is cheaper.

“These are issues I’ve already taken into consideration,” Byrd said. “We are working with the magistrates to figure out what’s the best decision whether to repair or build new.”

“May be cheaper to build a new building than to keep repairing this,” Pedigo added.

The conversation also turned to the equipment, specifically the trucks, used by the road department. One of the trucks in the department’s fleet is considered a hazard as “the front end shakes when you get going,” which might bring both county and individual legal trouble, though Richardson said it “depends on the policy” whether the individual is covered or not.

Coomer responded by saying they were entertaining the idea of leasing trucks to begin a rotation so trucks could be fixed without service being interrupted.

“We do have a meeting [coming up] looking into leasing,” Coomer said. “We’ve never done that, I’ve never been the kind of person that thought that was the right way to do things, but with how hard it is to work on these vehicles today we may.”

Finally, Livingston also requested an updated safety training video saying most of the new guys just received handbooks.

The discussion ended with Livingston, the magistrates and the judge-executive agreeing they “were all on the same page.”

Though that discussion took a majority of the meeting, Coomer did propose making private road signs a different color to make it easier to differentiate. No action was taken and so the meeting was adjourned.