While Trigg County Schools is a month away from beginning its 2025-26 academic year, one major concern is already on the minds of some local citizens — citizens seeking solutions to the afternoon traffic jam and quagmire that’s constantly on Main Street.
During Thursday night’s Board of Education meeting, Cadiz citizen Becky Francis brought forth a heavily-detailed four-page plan analyzing what has already been done, and what still could be, for car pick-up.
Beginning on school days as early as 1 PM and ending around 3:05 PM, Francis outlined that the consistent backflow of traffic prevents motorists from seeing overall traffic when they leave her business, and that clients of hers cannot leave her parking lot — nor arrive on time to an appointment — due to parked cars along the pick-up road.
Furthermore, she said she often gets stranded in her home driveway and cannot leave, or when she returns home, she cannot even get to her house. She added that the district’s school buses are detained on Main Street and cannot get to the campus, and there remains a general unsafe environment for ambulances entering U.S. Hwy. 68/80, as well as the Trigg County Hospital’s parking lot.
So, what’s been done about it?
According to her, several things. The Kentucky Highway Transportation Cabinet has set signs saying “No Parking Anytime,” which are blatantly ignored. The school has delivered multiple copies of car pick-up and drop-off rules, mostly to no avail. School staff have been directing cars when they get to district parking lots, but if staff aren’t present, the problem escalates. At one point in time, barriers were used to prevent cars from entering prior to 2:30 PM, and the Cadiz Police Department has come to force early arrivals to depart the premises — only to later be ignored.
Francis said she’s even spoken with Cadiz Police Chief Tyler Thomas, who has recorded the average pick-up time from start to finish running between 7 and 12 minutes.
And still, no reprieve. Even citations, she said, don’t work — because they just end up backing the line up longer.
She does, however, believe she has a solution.
Francis confirmed she has two people working at her business this year, meaning she will have twice as many customers coming and going during the fall and spring months.
It also means she, and many others connected to this problem, are twice as worried.
