BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — The City of Inez has been chasing the state for 14 years to get funding the state approved for the Rockcastle Pedway project. The city still has no answer, but when questioned by a former city commissioner in a meeting Thursday, Mayor Ed Daniels stated the city wants to be reimbursed for the money it invested in the project.
Former Inez City Commissioner Dennis Hall, a guest at the meeting, told the commission that residents of Skeeze Ward Manor had contacted him about the city’s progress on the pedway project.
“They asked if I could get an update so [Mountain Citizen reporter Nora Ray] can print it in the paper, or I can let them know when they call me again,” Hall said.
Daniels stated he had sent the project paperwork to an attorney to investigate.
“The lady that was in that office on that, she went to something else, or she resigned or something,” Daniels said, referring to former Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Alternatives Program coordinator Kim Thompkins. “I’m not sure who has replaced her.”
Daniels said the county had committed funding for the project, and he was working with Martin County Judge/Executive Lon Lafferty to get information on the project status.
According to the mayor, the city initially invested $10,000 for engineering costs and another $23,000 for property acquisition and additional engineering costs.
“We want our money back,” said Daniels.
City clerk Lisa Mollette said the pedway project was a topic in a Downtown Strategies meeting she attended earlier Thursday.
“The residents in those two apartment complexes would be within the 20-minute walkability zone if that pedway was completed,” said Mollette.
Former city clerk Candy Crum, a guest at Thursday’s meeting, told the commission that the county had never given the city any money on the project.
“The money was set aside, $36,000, to give to the city, but it never came to fruition because the pedway didn’t,” Crum said.
Crum added that one of the residents at Skeeze Ward had talked to her every day about the pedway.
Mollette confirmed, “That was her pet project. She was so excited. She said, ‘The only way I’m going to get me one of them 4-wheel scooters is when they get that pedway finished. Then I can go right over to the Dollar Store.”
Hall echoed the two clerks while Commissioner Terry Fraley called the situation “sad.”
“Look at the businesses that weren’t there back then,” Fraley said. “There’s so much of an opportunity there for the people that need the wheelchairs, or for the people that don’t have a vehicle, to walk over there and get their groceries and do it in a safe manner.”
Crum said people using wheelchairs have no choice but to ride them on the highway and across the Route 40 bridge.
“That’s dangerous,” added Crum.
Daniels pointed to inflation as “one of the biggest killers” of the project.
“The people that bid it really didn’t want the job,” said Crum. “It was such a small job that they weren’t going to make any money.”
The Rockcastle Pedway project dates back to 2009 and comprises a pedestrian bridge across Rockcastle Creek beginning at the Skeeze Ward Manor Housing Complex on Old Route 3 and ending at Boardwalk.
The project was bid out twice, with the last bids opened in July 2020.
Thompkins told the Mountain Citizen in a June 2022 phone interview that the project was still “active,” and she was working to acquire additional funding.
“The bids came in too high,” Thompkins said in June 2022. “I need to get an updated construction estimate and need to get some additional funds, and bid the project again. It’s not big; it is just stuck.”
Thompkins refused to answer questions regarding funding the state had approved for the project.