County seeks info on owner of private drive west of Whigham

The condition of another private drive in horrendous and potentially unsafe condition has been brought to the attention of the Grady County Commission.
Commissioner June Knight told her fellow board members she had an issue in Whigham regarding a private drive that serves a mobile home park just west of Whigham.
“The person who owns it won’t take care of it and I can’t find out who owns it,” Commissioner Knight said.
Grady County Commission Chairman Ray Prince said there had to be a deed somewhere identifying the property owner. Knight said she had contacted Grady County Tax Commissioner Barbara Darus and the tax commissioner confirmed that she did not have a bill for the property.
Chairman Prince suggested the county likely would have to have a title search completed to identify the legal and responsible owner of the road.
Grady County Fire Chief Richard Phillips, who was in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, concurred with Knight that the road is in poor condition. “You could hide an ambulance or a fire truck in some of the holes in the road,” the fire chief said.
Grady County Clerk Carrie Croy reported that Grady County School System buses turn onto the private drive off U.S. 84 to pick up and deliver children off of the major highway. According to the clerk, school bus drivers are also having problems navigating the road.
“So, we are going to do a title search?” Commissioner Keith Moye asked. Chairman Prince responded, “we’ll have to.”
Prince noted that several years ago the county offered to take over and maintain private drives that were brought up to Department of Transportation standards, but not many owners of private drives took advantage of the county’s proposition.
“We’re not offering that anymore,” Prince noted.
The county applied for and was recently awarded a Community Development Block Grant to finance improvements on two similar private drives in southern Grady County.