Ditch digging kerfuffle: Confusion muddies the rules of the road

BLUFF CITY, Tenn. – A communications breakdown among government agencies is forcing the developers of a new subdivision to dig the same ditch twice – and raising questions about whether the first dig along Graybeal Road violated the law or Sullivan County ethics policies.

Doing a favor for the town of Bluff City and attempting to prevent excess work for his staff, Highway Commissioner Allan Pope on March 4 ordered his crews to dig a 36-inch-deep ditch along Graybeal Road, so the town’s utility could install a water line for the new subdivision. County highway crews already were working on widening the road, and needed to create and 18-inch ditch for proper drainage.

But as the highway crews were digging, Pope said in a March 6 phone interview from a surveyor’s conference in Murfreesboro, Tenn., they ran into some private contractors the subdivision developers had hired to do the same work.

Those contractors and several other people took their concerns to the Sullivan County Commission’s executive committee, which now has called a special meeting to investigate the situation and determine if any laws or county ethics policies were violated.

County Attorney Dan Street said the committee specifically is trying to determine whether Pope violated the ethics policy or a state law barring the use of county highway equipment for anything other than official county business.

“Nobody here was doing anything illegal,” Pope said of the allegations. “All we were doing is trying to help Bluff City.”

The ditch

Reed and Sylvia Booher in September bought about 20 acres of land at the end of Graybeal Road, a three-tenths-mile, county-maintained stretch on the east side of town, running from State Route 44 to the banks of the South Fork of the Holston River. The couple, who did not return calls seeking comment for this story, then submitted a plat to the Sullivan County Planning Commission seeking to subdivide their land into 15 residential lots.

But before the planning commission offered its final approval, Planning and Zoning Director Ambre Torbett said, the Boohers had to install a water line connecting the subdivision to Bluff City’s public water main, which runs underneath State Route 44.

Torbett said that because of the subdivision, the highway department would have to widen Graybeal, now a one-lane road, so that its asphalt surface was at least 24 feet wide and big enough for two cars to pass side by side. The Boohers were required to give the highway department a 40-foot-wide strip of right-of-way before the widening project could take place, the planning director said.

“Right-of-way is expensive,” Pope said in his March 6 phone interview from Murfreesboro. “Any time we can get free right of way to widen a road, we do it.”

To widen Graybeal Road, Pope said, the highway department had to dig an 18-inch-deep drainage ditch along its side. Additionally, part of the ditch had to be deeper so the department could install two 20-foot cross drains under the asphalt surface.

While designing the widening project, Pope said, the highway commissioner learned that the Boohers and their developer had been in contact with Bluff City about a water line along that route.

Pope then presented the Boohers with a simple solution: Rather than dig its drainage ditch the required 18 inches deep, the highway department would dig it 36 inches deep – so the town would not need to redig a deeper ditch when its utility crews installed the water line.

The benefits were many, Pope said: The town would save money; the ditch would not have to be dug twice; the new roadbed would not have to be torn up; and the highway department would not have to return and repair damages to the 18-inch drainage ditch.

“To me that just makes good sense,” Pope said, adding that the highway department has helped several public utility companies with similar arrangements in the past. “You get some cooperation between the cities and the counties.”

Bluff City’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen threw a kink into the plans Feb. 11, when it voted against the Boohers’ request, City Recorder Judy Dulaney said. The town has never installed a water line for a private developer, Dulaney said, but it did agree to tap its water main for the Boohers.

When asked about Pope’s arrangement, the town recorder said: “Well, I guess you’ll have to ask Mr. Pope where he got that idea from. I don’t know.”

Pope said he did not know that Bluff City refused the Boohers’ request, nor did he know the couple had hired a private contractor to lay the water line.

“We didn’t find that out until the other day,” Pope said. “We were under the impression that Bluff City was going to do it and if we knew [the Boohers] were going to hire a private contractor to go out there then I’d let him dig the ditch.”

Regardless of Pope’s intentions, when the Boohers’ private contractor arrived on the scene he saw the highway department had already done most of the work. So he called his county commissioners to complain.

The committee

County Commissioner John McKamey of Piney Flats represents Bluff City and its surrounding area on the 24-member county commission. He also sits on the commission’s executive committee, which is chaired by County Commissioner Wayne McConnell of Kingsport. The executive committee oversees the county highway department.

On Wednesday, McKamey said, someone living at the end of Graybeal Road asked him why the highway department was digging a ditch and widening the road. That was the first of many calls about the work that McKamey would receive that day.

“There’s been a lot of contractors who bid on that project,” McKamey said, adding that he knows of at least four people who were interested. “They were upset because they were wondering who got the bid, went up there and saw the county was digging the ditch.”

McKamey said several county officials – including Gordon Peterson, who chairs the Sullivan County Planning Commission and was one of the contractors who bid on the project – made trips down to Graybeal Road to look at the work March 4. The executive committee organized its own trip to the site March 5 and then scheduled a special Wednesday meeting to discuss the situation in greater detail.

“It’s got all sorts of issues in it,” County Attorney Dan Street said of the Graybeal Road project and the executive committee’s review. “The big question is, has more been done than should have been done for county highway purposes.”

In Tennessee, Street said, it is a misdemeanor for a county highway commissioner to use his department’s equipment or supplies for private purposes or any other non-county business. The act also could violate the county’s own ethics code, the county attorney said.

Street’s other questions involve concerns people have mentioned regarding why the county highway department was working on Graybeal Road in the first place and whether the highway department had enough right-of-way for its work. He plans to present these issues to committee members Wednesday.

“It will be left up to the county attorney to tell us what to do,” McKamey said, adding that the committee’s members might have questions of their own regarding the Graybeal Road project.

Pope said the executive committee has blown the issue “way out of proportion,” and insists he would not have dug the ditch in the first place if he knew the Boohers had hired a private contractor. He also feels personally slighted that no one on the committee called him to discuss their concerns before calling the special hearing. Pope did not hear from Street about the issue until March 7, nearly three days after the incident took place.

That day, Pope also ordered his crews to back-fill the ditch – even if it meant having them come in on a Friday, a day they normally have off – so the Boohers would see no personal gain from his lack of communication with Bluff City.

That means the Boohers will have to dig the ditch again, something that will delay their subdivision construction – as well as Pope’s plans to widen Graybeal Road.

gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518