A note from the authors

I can clearly remember the day that my family and I moved to Clinton County almost a quarter century ago. We were the first family in a new little 80 acre Danny Y housing development at the very southern edge of the county. I remember the old tobacco barns at the start of the S curves. I remember the giant picture of the duke off of PP. It truly felt like the country then.

I remember the day so well because of the evening. That evening someone set fire to another empty new house in the development. Suffice it to say it was quite an ordeal. We got to meet sheriff Jones that night, who I remember flatly informed me that the law allows me to protect my family with deadly force. It was at that minute that I knew I was a permanent resident of this county. (Actually the picture of the duke had already sold the deal).

But we digress...

When Danny built this development, he also had the road built, which is a gravel county road. Whoever built that road did a great job. Solid base, good crown, well drained, dah dah. So much so that we never contemplated the road whatsoever for at least 15 years.

In the following decades, we've had several Sheriffs (shout out to K Porter. He was our favorite other than our current sheriff Carrel :) and lots of other memorable county elected officials. We've seen ups and downs.

The reality today is that while our area is still rural, it is hard to call it "the country" given the number of folks that live and commute here. We still love the lifestyle, but it's different in some parts of the county. That's just undeniable. People have to live.

Over time, more and more people rely on our roads and unfortunately, they have only continued to deteriorate. My poor road has suffered from that same neglect. Residents are restless all over south county when the wet weather comes. The term "third world" gets thrown around. This tells me we are headed in the wrong direction.

Unfortunately the story ends here for the moment. We don't have many answers, yet, but we're looking forward to finding them.