RIPLEY – Cong. Travis Childers fielded several questions during an informal luncheon Friday, Aug. 6 at Shirley’s.

Ripley Mayor Kerry W. Hill thanked Cong. Childers “for running interference” and providing federal assistance that helped Dirt Cheap and Albany Industries locate here.

The mayor also thanked Childers for helping fast-track the Miss. 15 four-laning work in this area. Dirt work on that project recently began just north of New Albany.

Mayor Hill also expressed his appreciation for Childers helping provide the funding for a grant to relocate city utilities from the path of the proposed Miss. 15 improvements from Moores Mill Road to just past the Town of Falkner.

A recently-let contract calls for those lines to be moved in about 150 (working) days. About 60 days after that work is done, a a contract for dirt work on the road is slated to be let, according to the mayor.

The mayor also thanked Cong. Childers for helping with funding that will provide curbs and gutters from the traffic light at the hospital south to the railroad tracks on North Main. A previous grant provided paving from that traffic light north to Farrow-Ward Ford.

Mayor Hill also asked Childers for any help he could provide as the city seeks a grant to develop a new city park.

Walnut Mayor Vicki Skinner told him that FEMA had been “a little slow to respond” following the storms that pounded the town earlier this year. She reminded the congressman that the town is starting Phase II of its park improvement program.

Falkner Mayor Doyle Griffin told Childers “I was madder than a wet hen” when the highway right of way land acquisitions took out a pair of convenience stores and forced at least one church to relocate. Griffin is singing a different tune now, he told Childers.

Improvements from Hill Brothers and ILM, including a five-lane road – two lanes each side of a mutual left turn lane -- instead of a four-lane road with a median strip down the middle, are helping create a “new Falkner,” that is a lot more economically robust, he said.

“The highway took the old Falkner away, but with the new highway coming through the new Falkner will be bigger and better,” Griffin said.

He went into more detail after the meeting.

He said ILM – a company owned by the mayor’s brother and sister-in-law that does landscaping, erosion control and yard work -- has improved looks of its property and donated a lot of things to the town park.

He said Hill Brothers “has been a pillar of the community,” donating land for the park, and opening up a convenience store and café.

One of the major changes is the five-lane road, the mayor said.

“The proposed highway was a four-lane road with a median in the middle, which had all been planned before I became mayor. That median would have killed us. It would have meant anyone coming southbound who wanted to stop at a store on the northbound side would have had to go to the next exit to come back. It also would have caused problems for school buses.

“We talked to everyone we could about that, and kept asking ‘why not have a five-lane?’ Finally one day (district engineer) Bill Jamieson called and said he wanted to put in a five-lane. I told him that day if he was here I would hug his neck,” Griffin concluded.

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