Supervisors hear about state's plan for bridge funds

On Monday, the Franklin County Board of Supervisors heard from engineer Mike McKenzie regarding a new funding mechanism being put into place for bridges by the Office of State Aid Road Construction.

“From what I understand, (the legislature is) adding another separate pot of money in the State Aid system,” McKenzie said during the board’s first business meeting of the month.

“As long as we’ve all been aware, we’ve had State Aid funds and Local System Bridge Program replacement funds (available). Well, what you saw was all the counties’ supervisors wanted to focus their State Aid money on reseals and overlays to maintain the roads they had.

“You didn’t really see a focus of anybody wanting to take State Aid money and put it on State Aid bridges. You might say, ‘Well, what State Aid bridges would we spend money on? They’re all steel piling, or concrete piling or concrete.’

“Well, no, they’re not. Providence and Knoxville were State Aid bridges. If I sat here and looked at a map, I could start identifying other bridges that are on the State Aid system that would qualify for State Aid money, but yet they’re deteriorating out from under us.

“There was never a focus put on State Aid bridges. (State Aid Engineer Harry Lee James) went to lawmakers this year with a lot of support from county engineers, and now they have set up a separate State Aid bridge program.

“So you’re going to have State Aid money, (the) LSBP bridge program and a State Aid bridge program. They’re going to fund it between $20 and $30 million a year, just like LSBP.

“I haven’t been told exactly how they’ll divvy the money out, but I imagine it will be the same way the LSBP money is (given out), which is based on the number of bad bridges that you have, and how big they are.

“Basically the square footage — your square footage of bad bridges compared to everybody else’s. So what that will do is allow us to replace the Knoxville (type) bridges and the Providence (type) bridges without depleting the money you need in the next term for reseals and maintenance jobs like the boxes on Bunkley or the slide on Berrytown.

“The bridge money is going to be specifically directed towards replacing deficient bridges that are on the State Aid system.”

Also in the meeting, McKenzie said he planned to have quotes ready at the next board session for repairs to the Clear Springs Road bridge.

“(This is) the little short bridge, the first bridge you come to on Clear Springs Road,” he said. “All the timber head walls washed out from under it.”

The panel had received quotes last summer with Eddie Beach of Midway Construction providing a low quote, but the U.S. Forest Service was concerned the money granted to pay for the job would be expired before the job was finished, as there were only three weeks left in which it could be used. Thus, the quote was allowed to expire.

McKenzie said the Forest Service reapplied for the funding and it has been reauthorized.

Board attorney Bill Halford asked if the amount was enough that the board would need to take bids for the project, but McKenzie said quotes would suffice as the cost would likely be under the $75,000 statutory threshold.

In other business to come before the board, supervisors took the following actions:

• Received quotes from Stribling Equipment and Puckett Machinery for leasing a new backhoe for District 4.

The board accepted the quote from Stribling Equipment as best — although it was $11.72 higher — because they already have a good working relationship with the company.

• Approved paying Walter Beesley $2,753.11 for collecting $11,012.42 in Justice Court fines for March.

• Gave approval to pay Southern Fire in Summit $64 for a service call and annual fire extinguisher inspections.

• Approved paying $478.55 to Belinda Stewart Architects for services provided and for advertising costs related to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History grant received for courthouse repairs.

• Voted in favor of two school bus turnarounds that were approved by board of education and located in Districts 3 and 5.

• Approved a payment of $690 to Kiwi Trucking for repairs to a drainage site located behind the Franklin County Department of Health building in Bude.

• Held a public hearing regarding the abandonment of a right-of-way in Eddiceton listed on maps as “Montgomery Street” as well as an alley also located in the village.

The matter was brought up at the first regular business meeting in March, with District 4 Supervisor Pat Larkin and Halford informing the other members of the panel that the street was overgrown and unused and the alley was located in a pond.

Halford read aloud the resolution to abandon the street and alley.

As no one was present to raise concerns on the matter, the board unanimously voted to pass the resolution.