Taylor bemoans subdivision mess

When District 3 supervisor Keith Taylor drives through a new subdivision and sees contractors have left construction waste in a homeowner’s yard he makes a move to correct the situation. It is one of his pet peaves.

Taylor was driving by Stacey Thornberg’s new home when he saw the lot completely stripped of topsoil and covered with mud.

“They moved here from Collierville,” Taylor said.

“I drove by her house and saw a pipe completely stopped up with mud.

“That’s where it started,” he said. “A ditch runs between her house and her neighbors and it’s getting wider and wider.”

Taylor said he wants subdivision lots sodded from the house to the road to stop the silting of topsoil into the ditches and stopping up culverts.

He made the curve on Deer Creek Road and saw a similar problem.

Thornberg said she reached out to the developer but got no help.

“You can drive by and see it’s going to cost the family,” Taylor said. “It’s soggy ground. Something has got to be done.”

Thornberg moved into her new house in January and all the construction waste was still on the site.

“It’s an eyesore,” she said. “It’s the worst nightmare I could go through. This was supposed to be our home for our kids to grow up in. It’s nothing but mud and nails and wire.”

Taylor said the builder is still putting up homes in the area. He wanted to know what action the board could take to help Thormberg and her neighbors.

“There’s a bunch of them out there,” Taylor said.

Zoning administrator Ken Jones said some one had gone out and tried to “shape up the ditch.” District 5 supervisor Ronnie Joe Bennett said the developer should be the person who cleans the silt out of the ditch.

“Her contractor just builds the house,” Bennett said. “It falls back to the developer who should be the one to get it (the site) ready and keep it ready. This ditch is washing away.”

He said the builder just bulldozed the construction debris over to the next lot.

“It’s wire, dirt, shingles, everything left,” Thornberg said. “It is the developer who is responsible.” Taylor asked if the board has authority to fix Thornberg’s lot.

District 4 supervisor George Zinn III asked if the contractors bond could be forced to pay to correct the problem on lots left in this situation.

“It all boils down to the buck stops right here,” Bennett said. “This board needs to make sure nothing else affects drainage. This stuff we have to stop. It’s the one who is getting the land ready for building the house (who is responsible to stop erosion).”

Thornberg said the pad on her house was laid, then the buyer backed out.

“If we had known, I would never have signed to close,” she said. Jones said the developer buys lower lots and then goes in and gets someone to fix the problem cheap.

“We’ve had identical issues before,” attorney Amanda Whaley Smith said.

“Her (driveway) pipe is about completely stopped up now and she has to put another pipe in,” Taylor said. “Is there any way we can make the parties responsible fix it?”

Regarding the construction waste, Smith asked if a construction dumpster is placed on every site, which zoning requires.

“What do you do when they don’t?” board attorney Smith asked.

“They pushed it off to the next lot,” Jones said.

Taylor asked why the contractor was given a permit.

Jones said construction can be stopped or inspections held up until corrective measures are made.

“We will do our job today,” Taylor said. “When the county does something wrong, I’m going to take the blame for it. What’s so bad about it, yours is not the first subdivision.”

Thornberg explained why she bought a house in Marshall County.

“We can’t afford a $400,000 house in Collierville,” she said. “And we have to pay for private school for our kids. It’s our fault. I didn’t know what to do.”

Taylor said the board will ask the

attorney to provide advice on what action the board can take.

“We are going to do everything we can do,” he said.

Thornberg said she hopes speaking out helps other people from going through what they have with the developers and builders.

Legislative report

County consultant Gary Anderson and Rep. John Faulkner visited the boardroom to report on the 2022 legislative session.

Anderson said the state had a $2 billion excess and so lots of other things got funded.

Those included $600 million for the Mississippi Department of Transportation and $450 million of the Department of Environmental Quality for water and sewer projects.

“There is a lot going on – a type of session where the House and Senate did not agree, which prolonged the sesson,” he said. “These guys worked together on a lot of things to get things done.”

Faulkner referenced an article in The South Reporter on the ARPA projects that were funded by the legislature.

“The county delegation worked really well together this session as a team to make sure we brought (ARPA) home to Marshall County,” he said.

There was more money in Jackson because of COVID. A tax bill wanted by the speaker of the house was hurried extending the session 30 days.

Anderson said Rep. Bill Kinkade and Steve Massengill on the House Ways and Means Committee helped get funding so the legislature did not have to pass a bond bill this session.

“So they put projects in the appropriations bill,” he said.

Faulkner who has lots of friends on the appropriations committee helped get things done through Ways and Means, Anderson said.

“I am totally pleased with the Marshall County delegation,” said Zinn. “They brought dollars into Marshall County. Every dollar that came is a dollar we would not have had ordinarily. It is a great day.”

Anderson said the funding of DEQ and MDOT will help the county with several road and bridge projects.

“We need to be ready to go after those dollars,” he said. “Shovel-ready projects will be a priority.” Bennett said Marshall County got $30 million through state road funds to put toward the bridges and overlays and toward broadband so every underserved area will have broadband (Internet service).

Anderson said Northcentral Electric Cooperative is trying to get broadband to rural areas.

In other business the board:

• discussed a bid for $211,000 from Election Systems & Software equipment.

• considered furniture for the 911 offices. Three bids were opened: Zybit Systems ($90,915); BTS ($107,946) and Adaptaspace ($93,618).

• noted Code Red still serves Marshall County. To get emergency calls during threatening weather, signup on the Marshall County website, said Emergency Management Coordinator Leland Reed. The service is free to Marshall County residents who sign up.

• discussed a proposed meatprocessing plant application to be located on Higdon Road on 50 acres that backs up to the National Forest. The proposed plant is a familyoperated business where the owner raises the animals and then will sell meat out of a business on the downtown square.

• approved requests for two enclosed trailers to store lawn mowers and weed eaters.

• approved a quote for roundup at $39 a gallon from Bi-county Co-op.