The Leflore County Board of Supervisors has declared an emergency situation at County Road 559 because of heavy rain.
District 1 Supervisor Phil Wolfe had pushed for the declaration for the road, which is in his district. He said the move, made at the board’s meeting Monday, will expedite the process for obtaining the gravel needed to surface the road.
County Road 559, located north of Greenwood, was being repaired before the rain began. The road was torn down to be rebuilt, but workers did not have enough time to put rocks back onto the road.
“It’s in really bad shape out there,” Wolfe said. “It’s a school bus route, a mail route and a lot of people live out on this road. If we don’t fix this soon we may not be able to by winter.”
Without the emergency declaration, the county would have had to follow bidding procedures, and Wolfe said that would have pushed the the project into the late winter.
“The main thing is that we have a safe road,” Wolfe said. “Right now, the road is a hazard to the people who use it.”
Declarations of emergency are quite rare, he said. The road might have been torn down in sections if not for the heavy rain, he said.
Wolfe told the board that the cost to the county would still be within the previously approved constraints. The cost will be the same because the only thing that will change will be the bidding for the gravel, he said.
The road is being covered with #610 gravel, a material that becomes harder as it is compressed by wear.
