The City of Lewisburg made a request to the county for highway encroachment rights at the intersection of Kenner Road and the Old Lewisburg-Jericho Road to run water lines.

The city had asked for the encroachment a few months ago, but the county wouldn’t allow it until the city made sure the contractor secured a $10,000 bond protecting the county roadway during and after the project.

One of the reasons magistrates delayed approval of the request was due to a previous water project the city of Lewisburg performed on Holland Road over a year ago. According to Magistrate Curtis Watkins, the road – which is in his district – was not repaired after the project was completed and he has been trying to rectify the problem since.

Magistrate Loyd Houchens of the fourth district said the projects had different contractors and felt they needed to be looked as separate projects. Magistrate Thomas Bouldin agreed and thanked Lewisburg Mayor Ken Whitson, who was at Tuesday’s meeting, for “doing it right” by having the bond for this current project.

Whitson agreed it was unfortunate the Holland Road project turned out the way it did, saying the city was still holding final payment monies to the contractor of the Holland Road project.

Watkins wanted to get the Holland Road repairs taken care of before allowing the recent request by Lewisburg, which ruffled the feathers of Mayor Whitson.

“That’s fine but I will just tell the newspaper who is holding up the project. You can tell them they won’t be getting their water,” said Whitson.

Watkins quickly came back saying, “I don’t want to keep anyone from getting water, I just want to make sure Lewisburg pays for the first project before starting another one. I appreciate you getting the bond on this but the other project needs to be done too.”

Magistrate Houchens made a motion to allow the city encroachment rights for the Kenner Road and the Old Lewisburg-Jericho Road. His motion passed unanimously.

Magistrate Watkins made another motion requesting the $1,376 to repair Holland Road from the City of Lewisburg from the monies they have in escrow from that project. His motion passed unanimously.