The new five-member commission, from left, are associates Kerry Watson, Garry Marchman, chairman Jeff Clemons, Kelly Duke and Corey Freeman.

County leaders are shoring up funds for emergency repair work along one of Cullman County’s busiest rural roads, having declared a state of local emergency in order to address the aftermath of a sinkhole that opened beneath a portion of County Road 222 last month near its intersection with I-65.

At its regular meeting last week, the commission declared the local state of emergency, a step that allows for a fast petition to the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) for $300,000 in funding to replace storm water drainage infrastructure underneath the stretch of affected roadway.

Commission chairman Jeff Clemons said last week that the county road department quickly had made temporary repairs to the road surface to assure that traffic could continue moving in the meantime — though damage to the underlying drainage system will need a more permanent fix.

“There are two 48-inch pipes underneath that road, and they have been there for probably 40 or 50 years,” said Clemons. “Now those are pretty much gone. We have a boring company that came up to give us an estimate, and we’re looking at close to a million dollars to address that project alone. It’s important that we do it right: We have a lot of industries on County Road 222 and shutting the road down right there would affect 300 trucks a day that go in and out of that area.”

In conjunction with the emergency declaration, the commission submitted an application to ADECA requesting $300,000 in Community Development Block Grant Urgent Need funds to replace the drainage culvert affected by the sinkhole subsidence. Clemons said he’s confident that those funds will come through to help expedite the repair work.

“We spoke with [ADECA director] Kenneth Boswell, and he agreed to release those funds,” he said. “The money is there for it, and I think Cullman and Good Hope will likely help with the cost as well. It’s in an area where shutting down the road would affect all of us: If that road goes down for any length of time, it will cost everybody a whole lot more, in the long run, than what we’re having to spend right now to fix it.”