The speed limit on Grenada Boulevard Extended is coming down, and signs, speed bumps and road stripes are going up following resident concerns about visibility and reckless drivers.
The Leflore County Board of Supervisors approved cutting the speed limit to 35 miles per hour along the road at its Monday meeting and gave County Engineer Robert Willis authority to put up signs and hire a contractor to paint the road.
The board also gave Willis permission to add striping and safety measures along recently repaved stretches of road throughout the county. Several supervisors had complained at the board’s last meeting that the unpainted pavement was too dark at night, posing a safety hazard.
Monday, the board also heard from longtime Leflore County resident Dot Connerly, who said she feared for her safety in her home on a 90-degree bend in the road along Grenada Boulevard Extended.
Over the weekend, Connerly said, a driver flew off the road, skipped over the ditch and crashed through her fence in the dark — the fourth time a car has taken down her fence.
“I just started crying ... when I opened my drapes and saw that was in my yard,” Connerly said.
She added that her son and his nephew were nearly broadsided pulling out of her driveway over the weekend and that she was concerned about drunk drivers using the road to avoid Mississippi Highway Patrol checkpoints along U.S. 82.
“I don’t want to go to bed at night and worry that a car is going to end up in my house,” Connerly said.
District 2 Supervisor Robert Moore, who initially raised the issue on Nov. 10 and brought it back up Monday, said the road desperately needs reflective paint at the edges because of a very narrow shoulder and deep drainage ditches along the roadside.
Willis said that the county already has a set rate for striping with a contractor on a 12-month bid and that he could have work started immediately — although he added that road striping usually requires clear weather and temperatures over 50 degrees.
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
