Jill Baker, Superintendent of the Scott County Highway Dept recently spoke at the Kiwanis weekly dinner meeting at The Kitchen on The Square in Scottsburg.  Pictured are Jill Baker and Kiwanian Nick South.  Jill has been with the highway dept since 2000.  She talked about the efforts to improve the roads in Scott County through the Community Crossing Grants.  Typically during an aaverage year, Scott County is able to pave about three miles of road.  This equates to one mile in each district in the county per year.  With the Community Crossing Grant and matching funds from the Council, $2 million, they were able to pave 34 miles in Scott County last year.  Scott County applied for this grant again this year and the money should be awarded by 31 August.  If the application is approved for the full amount requested, the county will have $2 million to pave roads again this year.  Money awarded through this grant can be used for work on bridges, paving and sidewalks.  Scott County has used the money to pave.  The new gas tax, which went into effect 1 Jul, will provide funds to help with roadwork.  Fifty percent of the money provided to the county through this tax has to be used on roadways.  The money they receive can be used for signs, paving, rock and culverts.  It cannot be used for salaries.  It costs approximately $62K to pave a mile of road.  Several bridges in Scott County need repair.  The County Highway Dept recently finished working on the bridge on Plymouth Road.  Some of the stones from the old bridge were donated to Lexington Park.  The county tries to work on as many roads as they can each year.  The roads selected are based on a grading system.  The roads that score the worse are repaired first.  The highway dept has two pavers.  Jill explained there are city, county and state roads in Scott County.  The County Highway Dept only works on county roads.  The Kiwanis thanked Jill for her presentation and for the great work the highway dept does for the residents of Scott County.