County road bids high

A program to apply micro seal to 12.9 miles of county roads have come in too high, according to county engineer Larry Britt.

Four bids were received as follows: · J.M. Duncan, Ripley - $2,114,040. · Gregory (Murphy Paving) - $1,787,944. · Lehman-Roberts Memphis - $2,412,420. · Double T - $1,954,328. Some of the roads set for micro seal included portions of Watson Road, Red Banks Road, and Early Grove Road. District 3 supervisor Keith Taylor wants to overlay with asphalt from Watson at the fourway stop on Highway 309 South back to the county line. Britt said South Red Banks Road and Potts Camp Road are scheduled for overlays.

“Can we not pave it?” Taylor asked. “The bids are extremely high,” Britt said. “You can blame it on the economy. The engineer’s estimate was about $500,000 more than the county had programmed. “The good news and the bad news is we have $3,300,000. But when we add contingencies and engineering to it, it will be about $800,000 short. The problem is, if we let this project and don’t have enough money on the books, they (the state) will probably not even let you bid the overlay. You have to get the cost down some. You can reduce contingencies and I will reduce my fee.” The county could try doing some of the work, he said. Shoulder gravel will run about $90,000 which is running the price up on micro seal, Britt said. And some roads will have to be leveled first before applying micro seal.

“You may need to put $600,000 in this budget or next year’s budget,” he said. “Mario (Jeffries) said they are getting good at overlay. State Aid is not allowing all counties to do County Forces overlay.”

Britt said the state has found that most overlay jobs done by counties are not up to acceptable standards. Therefore, to do County Forces, State Aid would have to get permission.

Britt said the county could let this (micro seal) project or change the second (overlay) project.

“If you don’t want to do this project as bid, you could cancel this project and ask for a leveling program for some roads,” he said. “Then you could take bids on micro seal next year, or cancel it and see if you can do it with the county force.”

He said State Aid would have to approve the program. Some counties have done such a bad job, State Aid has stopped letting counties do its own overlays.

“I think Mario’s work is as good as State Aid,” Taylor said.

Britt described two choices.

“You can take it (the bids on micro seal) under advisement,” he said. “Or you can talk with State Aid to try to have two projects, micro seal and asphalt.”

“You’ve got to be good with paving to level the road,” District 5 supervisor Ronnie Joe Bennett said. “It takes good (competent) people.”

Jeffries said he thinks county crews can “get good with it.”

Britt and District 1 supervisor Charles Terry favored calling in State Aid to look at the county’s work with the asphalt spreader.

“If we can get to do it ourselves and get paid out of State Aid funds, I favor it,” Terry said.

District 4 supervisor George Zinn III worried that spending money on micro seal could use up funds so there is not enough money to overlay roads.

Britt presented some reasoning.

“We can do leveling and micro seal all of it (12.9 miles) in one big program,” he said.

Terry said there is time to get State Aid to look over the program.

Britt said the state cannot take the funds away but the projects have to be programmed.

“We probably don’t have enough money to do both (micro seal and asphalt) projects,” he said. “We need to come up with a plan.”

The board passed a motion to take the micro seal bids under advisement.

Several other projects were discussed.

Britt said the Corps of Engineers has extended its project to complete the Tippah River Bridge to five years by renewal of the agreement with the county.

Zinn asked how the sewer project on Highway 72 is progressing.

“We have not changed our opinion on how to do it,” Britt said. “It will take $800,000 to do it.”

He said the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality will likely approve use of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds to help pay for the Marshall County Utility Services to be connected to the residences in the affected area.

“If we don’t do something, people are going to say ‘what have y'all done?’ “ Taylor said. “We need to do a moratorium on bringing anything else in like trailers.”

Zoning administrator Ken Jones said MDEQ was up on the north end looking at the situation.

“Y’all closed it down on the private lagoon,” he said.

“My argument is part of that (problem) belongs to DEQ,” Taylor said.

Britt said he thinks the county could match the cost of the connection to the county sewer lines using ARPA money. Otherwise, the county can do it on its own,” he said.

The state bought the property on the north side of Highway 72 in order to finish the four-laning of four miles on Highway 72 by closing the lagoon, Britt said.

If the county can get MDEQ to match dollars 1:1, then the cost of the county to connect the subdivision to the county sewer would run about $400,000, Britt said.

Justin Hall, executive director for the Marshall County Industrial Development Authority, was brought in for the discussion.

He said the county did a door-to-door survey about 10 years ago and a lot of residents didn’t want to get off the lagoon. Then MDOT took over the development on the north side of Highway 72 and the state was regulating the sewer.

“All you have to to do is tell me to design it,” Britt said.

“If DEQ shut ‘em down, they ought to have to help the county,” Bennett said.

Hall said that private septic systems could not be put in place in the subdivision because the land won’t perk.

“The issues at zoning is we have to provide connections to everyone there,” Hall said. “When you put that system in, you have to offer connection. Who is responsible for making the connection? And when you put the system in, you have to treat it. The lagoon is not working now.”

Taylor said the county should get itself legally in the clear and get the problem fixed.

“Either we do it ourselves or wait for DEQ for ARPA funds,” said Terry. “My question for you is what are the possibilities some of that residential property goes to commercial?”

Hall said all commercial property on 72 would have access to the sewer.

“Anything the board does has to be approved by DEQ,” Hall said.

“DEQ shut it down. Now they want to throw it back on the county,” Bennett said.

“It’s going to become our problem,” Taylor said.

“It may have become our problem, but DEQ started it,” Bennett said.

Terry said if the county has to wait on a decision from DEQ, the project cannot be done now.

Hall said the county could put the project on the Legislative wish list citing quality of life, health, and safety and economic development concerns.

Terry said nothing can be done now with wet weather coming in.

“Can we wait to next year?” he asked. “If we get legislation, it is still coming out of the taxpayers’ pockets.”

Bennett said Marshall County taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for it alone.

“Let the whole state pay for it,” he said.

Britt said preparing a design for the project would get it shovel ready and enhance the chance the legislature would help the county with a grant.

“I know it’s got to be taken care of,” Bennett said. “DEQ and the state need to do what they caused. I can’t see Marshall County taxpayers paying for it instead of the whole state paying for it.”

District 2 supervisor Maxine Dixon, in her first act as supervisor, made a motion to send a resolution to the legislature to ask for money to be allocated to help pay for the project in the next session. The board unanimously passed the motion.

Zinn asked what would be the cost to design the project.

Britt said typically engineering fees for the design run from 7 percent to 10 percent of the project.

“We do have an obligation to do something,” Taylor said.

Zinn made a motion to hire Britt to do the design study and have the project shovel ready when the county goes to the legislature asking for money.

The motion passed 4-1 with Bennett opposing the motion.

“There is no need to get our feet wet,” Bennett said, “because if we start this engineering, we are in it. I want to fight the state of Mississippi first before we start something we are going to have to finish.”

Britt said he would not do any design work until the county talks with DEQ to see if it will reimburse the county for the design study.

“If it will be reimbursable, we can change the motion in two weeks,” he said.

Board attorney Amanda Whaley Smith said if the county learns DEQ will approve reimbursing the county for the design, the motion can be rescinded.

“I’m trying to get DEQ and the State of Mississippi to get their feet wet, too, before we start the design,” Bennett said.