News Editor

Thanks to the efforts of the Pike County Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office 19 bad erosion sites in the county have been funded for repair.

Working in coordination with the Pike County Soil and Water Conservation District (SDCD), the NRCS secured federal funds through the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Emergency Watershed Protection Program. To date, 13 sites have been repaired in commission districts one, three, four and six, according to District Conservationist Randy Hale. He said the funds distributed to each district totaled $161,716.91.

District One Pike County Commissioner Willie Thomas and Pike County Engineer Herb Huner were presented with $10,844.44 for the repair of a gully area adjacent to a county road in the district.

District Three Pike County Commissioner Kay Penn and Pike County Engineer Herb Huner were presented with $63,772.93 for the repair of three gully areas adjacent to roads in the district.

District Four Pike County Commissioner R.

A. Goodson and Pike County Engineer Herb Huner were presented with $52,668.96 for the repair of six gully areas adjacent to county roads in the district.

District Six Pike County Commissioner and Commission Chairperson Karen Berry and Pike County Engineer Herb Huner were presented with $34,430.58 for the repair of three gully areas adjacent to county roads in the district.

The first installments of the payments were presented to Pike County Commissioners Karen Berry and Kaye Penn at the NRCS office Thursday afternoon. Berry and Penn accepted the checks for the other two commissioners who could not be present.

Hale told those in attendance that those in his office and the members of the SDCD had worked very hard to secure the funds needed to repair the 19 sites. "We do these things and put in the extra hours because we care about this county," he said.

County Commission Chairperson Berry said she and the rest of the commission were very thankful for the work the NRCS and SDCD had done to secure the funds for the projects.