SALYERSVILLE – While Salyersville Mayor Stanley Howard told the city council in last week’s meeting they had been awarded Local Assistance Road Program Funding (LARP) for blacktopping for five city roads, including his own road, the SI continues to fact check the mayor’s claims
In the most recent Salyersville City Council meeting Mayor Howard said he turned in roughly 15 roads for LARP funding, the state ranked each road by needs, and the sections of roads ranking the worst were awarded funding for blacktop.
From returns of Open Records Requests, the SI confirmed that the City of Salyersville did have blacktopping for portions of 15 roads assessed and quoted by Hinkle in February 2024. Those roads included: Allen Drive, Auxier Branch, Back Street, Coal Branch, Combs Street, Conley Street, Dixie Avenue, Flint Street, Henry Arnett Branch, Howard Street, Jeff Lovely Hill, Lee Prater, Patrick Drive, Sugar Camp Road and Ward Road, as well as the walking track at Ramey Memorial Park. The estimates do not include any road ranking as far as how bad the roads were and the quotes were listed as only being good for 15 days.
As far as what roads the mayor applied for under LARP, in the application submitted to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Department of Rural and Municipal Aid for the County Priority Projects Program, dated for April 2025, it appears Howard applied for resurfacing or patching of a total of five city streets as follows in the order they were applied for, claiming there are a total of 68 constituents affected by the roads requested:
– Sugar Camp Rd.
-Resurfacing of 0.3 miles, located just before Back St. entrance at 0.066 mile marker on Sugar Camp Rd. and running to ending mile point 0.4.
– Resurfacing of 0.6 miles, located after the bridge on Sugar Camp Rd. and before the intersection of Sugar Camp Rd. and Sugar Camp Spur, beginning at mile marker 0.00 and ending at mile point 0.56.
– Henry Arnett Br., resurfacing of 0.1 miles, located at the intersection of Coal Brach Rd. and Henry Arnett Br., beginning at 0.00 mile point and ending at the end of Henry Arnett branch at ending point 0.117. Project’s estimate cost of $16,731.25. Important to note, this is the mayor’s street.
– Flint Street, resurfacing of 0.1 miles, located at the intersection of Coal Branch Rd. and Flint St., beginning at mile point 0.00 to the end of Flint St. at ending mile point 0.1. Also important to note, this is the mayor’s brother’s road.
– Allen Drive
– Patching of 0.1 miles, located at 0.04 miles from the intersection of Parkway Drive and Allen Drive, starting at mile point 0.04 and continuing to the ending mile point of 0.1, patching a utility break.
– Patching of 0.1 miles, starting at mile point 0.077 to mile point 0.085, also to patch a utility break.
– Patching of 0.1 miles, located from the mile point 0.091 to mile point 0.097.
– Patching of 0.1 miles, starting at mile point 0.206 and ending at mile point 0.21.
– Patching of 0.1 miles, beginning at mile point 0.357 to ending mile point 0.39.
– Patching of 0.1 miles, beginning at mile point 0.495 and ending at mile point 0.506.
– Conley Street, resurfacing 0.1 miles, located at the intersection of East maple Street and Conley Street, beginning at mile point 0.00 and ending at mile point 0.1 on Conley Street.
LARP was established by House Bill 546 to provide an addition option for local governments to secure state funding for road projects. It is administered by the Department of Rural and Municipal Aid within the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. The maximum state contribution per project is capped at $500,000, though local governments can contribute additional funding to complete a project.
Under LARP, roads do have to follow a scoring criteria, with applications to be evaluated using a standardized scoring system based on: safety, congestion relief, asset management and cost effectiveness, and to include a 10% match from the City of Salyersville.
While SI is still awaiting returns on other Open Records Requests (ORR), currently we have not found documentation of the scoring rubric of the roads submitted in the application by the mayor, nor of the roads assessed by Hinkle for a price quote. It is also not included in the state’s biennial transportation budget.
Also important to note, the City has not received any LARP funding for their application, nor have they received an award letter, but the mayor was evidently reporting to the council about the state’s biennial transportation budget.
During the 2026 Legislative Session, the legislators passed a state biennial transportation budget, which itemizes the funded projects, and in that the following
projects were included for the 2027 fiscal year, totaling $67,400 for Salyersville city streets:
– Henry Arnett St. – $16,000
– Sugar Camp Rd. – $19,000
– 3 portions of Allen Dr. – $5,300 each
– Only one listed as to “relieve hazardous condition”
– Conley St. – $6,100
– Flint St. – $10,400
So, no, it does not appear “all of the city streets” were included in the application for LARP funding. The scoring criteria is still not completely explained, but we’re still waiting on an ORR to help clarify that, if possible, or if an assessment scoring all roads in the city was completed. The mayor’s own road and his brother’s road were both included on the first page prioritizing the roads the city requested LARP funding for, regardless of those being low population and low traffic areas.
This is an ongoing issue and the SI will continue to follow and provide updates as information becomes available.
