GOOD HOPE — After the responsibility of the road came into question in recent months, the city of Good Hope has received clarification from the office of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall that Cullman County is responsible for maintaining County Road 469.

The opinion from Marshall came after the Good Hope City Council passed a resolution in August to allow City Attorney Rita Nicholas to ask the attorney general’s office for an opinion on the matter of who should be maintaining the road.

County Road 469 — which connects to County Road 222 and is used as the primary entrance for Rock the South — has always been maintained by Cullman County, but one side of the road is within the city limits of Good Hope and the other side of the road was unincorporated Cullman County until it was annexed by the city of Cullman in 2012.

The road is in bad shape, and people who have called county officials to ask about the road’s maintenance have been directed to call Good Hope City Hall — even though Good Hope has never maintained the road, City Planner Corey Harbison said.

Marshall’s opinion includes citations from the Code of Alabama Sections 11-49-80 and 11-49-81, which address the requirements for assuming responsibility for public streets in a newly-annexed territory.

According to state law, a municipality is responsible for maintaining a road that was previously maintained by the county if the municipality annexes across the road or annexes property adjoining both sides of the road.

Marshall’s letter to the city stated that because neither Cullman nor Good Hope have annexed across the road, and because Cullman County has always maintained the road, the road is still the responsibility of the county, Nicholas said.

“It’s still a county road and it’s still the responsibility of the county to maintain it,” she said.