Kenton County KY won't accept responsibility for its ROADS

[bandit957]

Here's an article about a county with a completely broken, hapless, incompetent government that won't take responsibility for its roads...

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/local/northern-ky/2014/03/25/latonia-lakes-garbage-roads-kenton-county/6897967

A few comments: The "private" roads in that neighborhood are actually public. I checked a map on a local website to confirm that they are indeed public roads.

It's an average-income neighborhood where the roads have practically deteriorated beyond all hope because the county won't maintain them.

[Brandon]

I'm coming from a different perspective (Illinois).

Do the counties in Kentucky take care of all roads outside municipalities and those that are state-maintained?  I know that in Illinois, such roads are the responsibility of the township if they are not county highways.  Most streets like this would be considered township roads in Illinois.

[bandit957]

Do the counties in Kentucky take care of all roads outside municipalities and those that are state-maintained?

As long as it's a public road, then probably yes (except in a national park or other federal jurisdiction). Kentucky doesn't have anything like townships that are actually functioning.

[hbelkins]

From reading the story, it appears that residents were told back when they voted to dissolve the city that the county would not be responsible, and was not legally responsible, for maintaining the roads, yet they went ahead and dissolved their city anyway.

Just because a road shows up on a map doesn't mean it's a public road. And there is a difference between a privately-owned road that is open for public use, and a road that is owned by the public (i.e., a government agency).

[seicer]

The street name signage looks county, but it could be because of E911 regulations. That said, these do not show up as county maintained roads on their logs. It appears that when they voted to dissolve their city, they knew that their roadway system would need to be upgraded to minimum county standards. Were they under the assumption that it would just happen?

[vdeane]

Why would a public road become private just because the city was dissolved?  Why didn't Kenton County just grandfather them in?  New York may have many layers of bureaucracy, but at least here you know that somebody owns the road no matter what!

[bandit957]

From reading the story, it appears that residents were told back when they voted to dissolve the city that the county would not be responsible, and was not legally responsible, for maintaining the roads, yet they went ahead and dissolved their city anyway.

Some of the residents said they never got to vote on that, because the county gave them a ballot for Covington instead of Latonia Lakes.

[iBallasticwolf2]

Kenton county roads are well maintained... I live in Kenton county near a less than 10 year bypass of my local town. Both the original and new roads are in pretty good shape