Some much needed road work is coming, but not everyone at Monday”s Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors meeting was satisfied with the county”s progress.
The supervisors awarded two bids Monday, one for resealing 43.5 miles along 11 separate county roads and another to reconstruct 1.75 miles of Moore High Road near Crawford. The supervisors also heard complaints from Fred and Tamara Allen, regular visitors to the board meetings and New Light Road activists, about the county”s unwillingness to repave New Light Road.
“If the road crew can”t get to it, hire a private construction company,” said Fred Allen, wearing a custom-made “Pave New Light Road” ball cap and T-shirt.
Before the meeting began, Allen asked the men representing the companies competing for the road projects to wait around after bids were opened for the citizen comments portion of the meeting, during which he would present his case for New Light Road. None of the company men stayed in the board room for his presentation, but he implored the supervisors to bid out the project if the county road crew was too busy to handle it. He disputed the board”s and County Administrator Don Posey”s repeated claims that money for New Light Road isn”t in the budget.
“If you put it off until next year it”s just going to cost the taxpayers more money,” said Allen.
When Fred Allen”s three minutes to speak had expired, Tamara Allen jumped up to continue the cause.
Board President and District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard calmly explained to the Allens that they had been attending to supervisor meetings long enough to know the process for paving roads and explained that recent changes in the road department had slowed progress in the short-term but would ultimately streamline the county”s efficiency.
Meanwhile, the board awarded the resealing project for 11 roads to T.L. Wallace Construction Inc., for just over $1 .5 million and the reconstruction of a stretch of Moore High Road to Kimes & Stone Construction for $319, 691. Both projects will be funded through the county”s yearly allotment of state aid money.
The reseal project, for which the county is responsible for $13, 290, came in at two percent under the estimated cost and the reconstruction project was awarded for almost 23 percent less than the estimated cost.
The supervisors expressed their relief that the county would have to pay only $13,290 for the reseal project because the original matching funds were expected to be in excess of $100,000. No matching funds were required for the reconstruction project.
Posey said the resealing project will entail some leveling and filling cracks with a substance called DBST, which will prevent rain from getting into the roads and worsening the cracks. The reconstruction of a stretch of Moore High Road involves completely grinding the road and recycling the rubble to freshly pave the road.
In other business the board:
- Unanimously approved the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District”s new E-911 county road map, which includes 107 roads and the deletion of eight former roads. The new map coincides with the county”s readdressing project. Not every road on the map is considered a county road and will not be maintained by the county. Rather, for E-911 purposes, every driveway with more than three houses on it had to be designated and named as a road.
- Accepted a $220,000 bid for a new fire engine.
- Unanimously approved Oktibbeha County Justice Court”s request to no longer accept personal checks.
- Heard a request from Oktibbeha County Schools Superintendent James Covington to install electric sockets in the conference room floor of the new county education building at a cost of approximately $4,000. The board asked Posey to meet with Covington to discuss whether or not the school district could incur the cost.
- Heard from members of the Oktibbeha Starkville Emergency Response Volunteer Service (OSERVS) regarding a bill passed by the legislature allowing counties to voluntary organizations active in disaster relief.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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