By Emily Hagedorn
Enquirer contributor

WARSAW, Ky. - Sue Bishop could only watch as her daughter and four grandchildren crawled on hands and knees to climb the hill back to their Warsaw home in eastern Gallatin County after a recent snowstorm.

Every school day, the children walk the quarter of a mile down the hill to U.S. 42 to catch the bus, said Bishop, 57.

The road is in such disrepair that school buses, along with emergency vehicles, garbage trucks, snowplows, mail carriers and most other vehicles, can't climb it in bad weather, she said.

"Our road is worse than back in the horse-and-buggy days," Bishop said.

That could change if the county took the road - Timberline Road - along with about 10 other roads under its wing, said residents.

But county officials refuse to do so, saying it's a private road.

"They knew (of the road) when they moved there," said county Magistrate Eric Moore.

Many of these roads were built by home developers that have since declared bankruptcy, said Magistrate Jim Campbell.

The residents were led to believe the roads would be upgraded, but the roads have since been forgotten, he said.

Now social services cannot reach many of the citizens, Campbell said.

For instance, a busload of children have to walk a half-mile to Ky. 16 every morning from Mars Place, a subdivision with about 100 lots, he said.

On the 1.5-mile-long Timberline Road, Bishop had to bring her sick father down the hill to U.S. 42 to reach an ambulance five years ago because the vehicle couldn't make it to her home.

On the same road, firefighters had to put equipment on their backs and walk up the hill when a mobile home caught fire a couple of weeks ago, Bishop said.

Campbell compared the road to a creek bed.

"It gets worse all the time," Bishop said. "Even with just a rain, you can't get up it."

Campbell is planning to confront the other magistrates with the problem at Thursday's 6:30 p.m. Fiscal Court meeting, he said.

Campbell said the residents have a right to the county's $1.5 million highway fund.

"These are taxpayers that live on these roads," he said. "These people should not have to pay for this."