Officials push for Hwy. 72 work


Thursday, January 14, 2010
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Officials push for Hwy. 72 work

By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer

With the Crescent Corridor project coming to neighboring Rossville and Piperton, Tenn., local officials have gone to work on finding funding for the remaining four miles of single-lane on Highway 72 in Marshall County.

The road will need four-laning before the opening of the Memphis Intermodal Yard in Fayette County, Tenn., because truck traffic will be routed from Highway 72 in Marshall County across the state line to the new rail yard.

To that end, Rossville developer Bill Adair, who will build a road from Highway 72 to the rail yard, joined Sen. Bill Stone, and county administrator Larry Hall in talks with Mississippi Department of Transportation officials in Jackson recently.

Hall believes the intermodal yard could be finished before this remaining stretch of Highway 72 is converted to four-lane.

Bill Mobley, executive director of Marshall County Industrial Development Authority, said the county continues to seek new companies to move to the Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park area. He said if $70 million worth of development could be found, the highway would qualify for highway program money similar to the case of the help Holly Springs received for road construction at the Holly Springs Commons.

County consultant Gary Anderson advised the Marshall County Board of Supervisors in discussions last week that four-laning of Highway 72 may “end up as an item on the Legislative agenda.”

Anderson, who was present at the meeting of local officials with MDOT officials, said he is encouraged because the project has been a part of high level discussions at the state capitol.

With a now estimated $800 million shortfall in state tax revenues, legislators and the governor will be looking at what can be done from a bonding standpoint for roads and infrastructure, Anderson said. He asked supervisors to be in Jackson when the Mississippi Association of Supervisors meets with the Legislature.

In other business, the board of supervisors:

voted to rehire all county employees at their current salaries. The measure included the reappointment of all key personnel.
approved claims for $207,524.
discussed regulations concerning paupers’ funerals.
approved training for nine dispatchers with Enhanced-911.
authorized a board order for the closeout of four houses in the HOME grant.

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