Kentucky Senate President David Williams (R-Burkesville), who represents Clinton County as a part of his 16th District, is shown addressing the Senate during a floor speech last week. Gov. Steve Beshear, in what Williams is calling a vindictive move, cut funding to nearly all road projects in Williams’ district last week, including several projects in Clinton County that would have seen continued reconstruction of U.S. 127 to the Russell County boundary. (Photo by LRC Public Information)

Clinton County’s decades long wait on a new, modern and safe rebuilding of U.S. 127 appeared to be on the fast track to finally becoming a reality last week when, meeting in special session, the Kentucky Senate passed a road bill.

That particular version of the road bill included portions of the U.S. 127 project that would see the road advancing from Ky. 90 where rebuilding efforts are currently underway, north toward the Russell County line and the Cumberland River.

The road bill also included various stages for similar projects of the rebuilding of portions of U.S. 127 from the Jamestown Bypass, across the Cumberland River on a new bridge, and joining the road on the Clinton County side.

The projects were added to the Kentucky Road Bill by Kentucky Senate President David Williams.

Williams, (R-Burkesville), represents Clinton County as part of his 16th Senate District, and has had a long-standing feud with Governor Steve Beshear that eventually saw the two face-off in last fall’s Gubernatorial election, in which Beshear won a second term to the state’s highest elected seat.

On Wednesday of last week, Governor Beshear, in accord with his long-running feud with Williams, chose to veto funding for the projects in Clinton County and Russell County associated with the U.S. 127 project.

In all, Beshear struck through the funding of some $50 million in the road fund bill for projects in Williams’ district, as well as projects in Russell County, which is represented in the Kentucky Senate by Vernie McGaha (R-Russell Springs).

Beshear’s funding veto in Clinton County amounted to well over $13 million for U.S. 127 related projects, and an additional vetoing of nearly $14 million in related projects in Russell County, including work that involved the design, right-of-way and utility relocation in preparation for the construction of the new proposed bridge that would span the Cumberland River downstream of Wolf Creek Dam.

That project has been reported to have been a big item on the “wish list” of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the dam.

Currently under a rehabilitation project to eliminate leaks and seepage, the mile-long earth and concrete dam is also used as the span across Lake Cumberland and the Cumberland River as a section of U.S. 127.

The completion of a new bridge across the Cumberland River downstream of Wolf Creek Dam, and the approaching sections of U.S. 127 leading to the new bridge, would allow the Corps of Engineers to effectively remove all traffic flow across the structure.

Although the projects will remain on the two-year road plan, which runs from fiscal year 2012 through fiscal year 2014, Beshear’s action last week stripped secured funding away from the projects, fundamentally killing any hopes of the projects advancing for the length of this two-year road plan.

Speaking from his home on Monday, Williams told the Clinton County News during a telephone interview, that the Governor’s actions were purely politically motivated.

“It’s just a political thing that he has done,”Williams said Monday morning. “It just shows how vindicative he is. In essence, he shut down the progress of 127.”

Williams went on to say that seeing the reconstruction of U.S. 127 was of utmost importance to the people of Clinton and Russell counties, it was also an important project to all of the communities along the highway in Kentucky.

“127 is a vital lifeline to Clinton County and to Russell County, but it’s also vitally important to places like Anderson County and Lawrenceburg and Casey County and Liberty,” Williams said. “It would open up a viable shipping lane to the south clear across the state.”

Williams pointed out that the areas in Clinton County where reconstruction of U.S. 127 are currently ongoing, will continue to see that work progress, as the funding has already been secured in previous road plans.

Presently, construction work on the project, also known as the Albany Bypass project, is nearly completed on the center section, with blacktopping crews putting the finishing touches on that section this week, with four lanes of traffic moving in some places between the intersection with Ky. 90 in the Snow Community, and where the section ends in west Albany near radio station WANY.

Construction crews are currently moving dirt to build the foundation for the next section of the highway that will see the road continue south to the Kentucky and Tennessee boundary at Static.

While Clinton County will see the road project construction in those areas progress until completion, Beshear’s actions last week will apparently cause any progress toward Russell County to be delayed considerably.

Williams confirmed that on Monday, and while he questions whether or not the Governor has the power to veto single projects in the bill, he didn’t expect that issue to be taken any further. He has said several times that he simply isn’t “big on suing”.

He continued throughout the interview to say just how vindictive the Governor’s action were, not only to him, but to the people of Kentucky who live in this area.

“He has left zero funding in the bill for any projects in Clinton, Cumberland or Monroe Counties, and only a few minor design projects in Wayne County and Whitley County and McCreary County,” Williams said. “It is what it is – it’s just a political thing.”

“In essence, he (Beshear) has shut down 127 – We were hoping to have it finished in four years, but not now,” Williams said. “I’m going to tell him the next time I get close enough that I’m going to pray for him, because if someone gets killed on that section of road – the blood is on his hands.”