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County hashes road problems By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer An
important road in the Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park has some problems
with the subgrade which has soaked up rain water over the winter since
October and is holding it. Larry Britt, county
engineer, told the board of supervisors the contractor is having huge
problems working the road. It was scheduled to be a three-lane road
that will provide a truck route for ingress and egress into a critical
section of the park from Highway 302. Britt said the county does not have the money to dig out the subgrade and the contractors do not either. County administrator Larry Hall said it would take 60 days for the soil to “cook and dry” before construction could resume. “The topping will be soil cement, but we have a problem with the subgrade,” Britt said. “It is wet four to five feet deep.” Britt
said the road is critical to the traffic in the park and has to be
built to hold up. But it will not if the problem with water logging of
the soil is not corrected, he said. Britt said the problem is not the fault of the contractor who did not know what was under the road. Hall said the road is important for jobs and for development and is being paid for by federal stimulus dollars. Britt
said the situation could not be solved without consultation with
engineers with State Aid Division of the Mississippi Department of
Transportation. Supervisors discussed a bridge
replacement on Beale Road to be programed with State Aid. Britt said
the bridge should be programed and on the shelf in case a second round
of stimulus money becomes available. Hall
reported that some dollars may be available for infrastructure needs
from the Northeast Planning and Development District. A water extension
project to Jeffries Road may put some of those dollars to good use, he
said. Supervisor Ronnie Joe Bennett said the
extension requires boring under Highway 78. Hall added that the PDD is
looking to put money to work for the benefit of the most numbers of
individuals in the county. Juanita Dillard, tax assessor, reported on tax assessment on grain bins and silos. “We are not doing anything we haven’t done in the past,” she said. “If it has value, we tax. And we depreciate.” The
board entertained a lengthy discussion of putting in place policies for
internal controls and safeguards to track expenditures on grants. The
state requires audits on any projects with funding up to $500,000,
according to Chuck Thomas, chancery clerk. He agreed with state auditor
recommendations that no grants be accepted until the grant has been
researched by all departments affected. He also recommended five days
leeway before a purchase order request is put into effect. Supervisor George Zinn III, asked, “What was the real purpose?” “It is money that has already come out of Washington and now they are chasing it with rules,” Thomas said. Attorney
Kent Smith said the sheriff’s department has vigorously pursued grants
to upgrade positions and equipment but some grants require in the last
year of the grant that employees paid with grant monies be paid from
county funds. “We have to be sure we can comply with grants in years where the county has to fund positions,” he said. The board of supervisors unanimously approved implementing policies to assist in tracking grant requirements. In other business, the board of supervisors: • approved paying 2010 dues to the National Association of County Officials - $699. •
discussed ditch work to redirect water in a subdivision on DeSoto Road,
the installation of a drain pipe at the corner of Watson and Hawks Feed
Mill, and work on a ball field at Potts Camp. •
heard a budget concern from coroner James Richard Anderson, who said
his department is getting low on body bags and funds to restock because
of unexpected increases in the cost of autopsies at the state lab,
which he said have doubled. Autopsies cost the
county around $3,000, including transportation costs, and private
individuals, who request an autopsy that the coroner does not think is
needed, must pay $5,000, he said. He said the
budget next year will have to be increased to reflect these new charges
and for the cost of transportation of bodies to Jackson for autopsy.
The county is also looking at providing refrigeration when bodies must
be kept in a morgue while awaiting disposition. •
learned that the interchange at Highway 72 where the connector road
will join the county with the intermodal yard in Rossville is still in
the design phase. And the single lane stretch on Highway 72 is not set
to be four-laned until 2012, the year the intermodal yard is expected
to be completed. The truck traffic to the intermodal yard is not
expected to reach its maximum capacity until 2015 or beyond. •
heard a recommendation from supervisor Eddie Dixon that a committee be
formed to work with people who have homes or property in commercial
zones at the Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park. “They
bought their land in good faith, and we should make it more
comfortable,” Dixon said. “We need the development, but we want to make
it comfortable to people who invested in land (in Chickasaw Trail).”
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