VAIDEN — Carroll County’s bridge situation mirrors Mississippi’s, and it’s pretty dire, supervisors were told Monday.
A much-traveled bridge on County Road 286 in Beat 1 fell in earlier this month, and others in the county are in critical shape, supervisors and State Aid employee Jerry Gilliland said.
He told the Board of Supervisors that bridges in other counties are equally bad, and the $32 million allotted by the Legislature for 2015 — which is split among the state’s 82 counties — is not enough to repair but a small number of bridges in each county.
“Marshall and Lafayette Counties are as bad or worse,” Gilliland said.
To help those who used the bridge on the Carrollton-Grenada Road, Beat 1 Supervisor Terry Herbert said he had issued an emergency repair order to get the bridge on County Road 100 — the other major route to Grenada — in shape to better handle the increased traffic. A number of the county’s old bridges have a 6,000-pound limit, but people disregard it, Herbert said.
“If all the state allots at a time is $32 million, they won’t get fixed in our lifetime. We need all of them fixed,” Herbert said.
“You don’t have enough qualified contractors to do them all, even if the state gave us the money,” Gilliland said. “You’d swamp the system.”
Herbert said Carroll County got about $300,000 in road funds from the state this year. Some of that will go to build a one-lane temporary wooden bridge on County Road 286. That bridge is expected to open Thursday, he said.
Gilliland said the county will receive about $1 million in State Aid money in 2016. That money, which is paid once every four years, is used for road maintenance and repairs.
Herbert asked the board to allow the new bridge on County Road 286 to be designed and programmed so that work can begin as soon as possible after Jan. 1, 2016.
Herbert said he would not be allowed to start any new projects after July 1, as he is not running for re-election. But he said he would like to have the project ready for the new supervisor.
The price of a new bridge was not discussed on Monday, but earlier this month, Herbert predicted a new bridge would cost $400,000 to $500,000.
Beat 5 Supervisor Rickie Corley also asked for a bridge for his district to be readied, and the board included both bridges. A motion to build the bridges passed 4-0. Board President Honey Ashmore was absent.
Beat 4 Supervisor Claude Fluker asked whether there would be money left for his beat after the two bridges were taken care of. Gilliland told him there would be about $1 million left but didn’t say how he arrived at that figure.
The board also discussed whether to request that a DUI grant be renewed. Sheriff Jerry Carver told the board the amount of the grant is being cut from $61,891 to $36,413.
The grant money has been used to fund a deputy who works as a regular deputy but is also assigned to work on holidays and weekends for DUI enforcement. The money pays salary and benefits for the officer, Carver said.
The officer brings in revenue to the county because, in addition to the DUI tickets issued, he often finds other infractions such as improper equipment and lack of insurance, the sheriff said.
Supervisors asked Carver whether he could get someone to work for the lesser amount and whether he could find money in his budget to make up for the lost funds. Carver said he does not think he has the money. But Fluker told him he had looked at it and believes the sheriff’s budget will have the funds, especially in the new budget, which starts in October.
The board voted 3-1 to apply for the grant, with Corley voting no.
In other business, the board:
• Voted 4-0 to make a restroom handicapped-accessible in the Vaiden Clinic, which supervisors expect to lease to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. UMMC is planning to put a rural health clinic at the site.
“They will have an eye doctor and a dentist, as well, if they get the rural health designation,” Corley said.
• Discussed using inmate work crews to do various chores in the county such as lawn maintenance at public buildings and trash pickup on roadsides.
“They said we could keep the crews if we want, but they won’t pay the $20 per diem they have been paying to house the inmates,” Carver said.
• Discussed a request by the Black Hawk Hills Community Association to be included in the county’s budget. The group is requesting lawn care, benches, a walking trail, computers, printers and playground equipment. The board instructed board attorney Kevin Horan to write a letter to the association explaining that the county cannot pay for these items because the association is private and not county-owned.
• Went into executive session to discuss the legal fees from a lawsuit against the county by an inmate. Horan reported that the board agreed to pay the law firm of Daniel Coker Horton & Bell for its work on the case. The amount paid was not reported.
