The Tuesday, April 1, Carrollton Board of Alderman commenced at 6 p.m. with all aldermen present with the exception of Alderman Bo Milton. Much was discussed throughout the hour and a half duration of the meeting. However, the main points of business for the meeting are as follows.
As the largest point of the meeting, the Board discussed, at length, necessary work and corrections to previous work done on College Street. Recently, the town has begun an asphalt overlay project for College Street which has had unintended effects on drainage in the area. Due to the new overlay being steeper and going further than intended, water has started backing up in the area causing flooding in some residents’ yards. In addition to this work, Town Consultant Eric Hopkins explained that he believed the drainage inlet in the area was not installed properly and as a result has partially collapsed, adding to the drainage problem present. In the same project, a resident’s driveway was unintentionally overlaid partially with new asphalt, resulting in a lip of roughly four to eight inches preventing easy travel down their driveway. During the discussion of this issue, the Board deliberated on the best course of action to address the mistake.
“My question to you now - that twenty thousand dollars we’ve got in the account we cannot spend on anything except these projects. Since this problem is a result of this project - can we do all the way down to where the old asphalt stops and all the way to the end of the street - and it will cost ten thousand dollars, give or take,” Mayor Pam Lee offered a solution to the Board.
“I was in the meeting with her [Mayor Lee] and Willis [Engineering] yesterday and we were all discussing this - what Willis is talking about - the pavement was supposed to end here and it ended further down than it was supposed to. Shane [Correro’s] suggestion - which will fix the problem - is to back up here and cut the new asphalt and remove that section, repave the street from where they cut it all the way to the end of the old pavement - which the new doesn’t come to - and fix down their driveway, but lay that asphalt thicker so the drain inlet will work as is. In other words, the inlet wouldn’t be too high because you’d be raising the road up to compensate for that, which would be absolutely fine,” Hopkins explained a solution he stated was proposed by Willis Engineer’s Shane Correro.
“I feel like it’s two separate issues. Yeah we can pay ten thousand dollars to do that other stuff, but they need to fix that - for no more money,” Alderwoman Daphne Williams stated, regarding the mistake made on the overlay.
“So let’s take the Willis part first. What would you like to do about that situation?” Mayor Lee questioned the Board.
On this matter, Alderman Warren Long motioned to have the paving project finished with corrections made to address the issues with the overlay around the drainage inlet. This motion was seconded by Alderman Clint Gee with all present in favor.
On the second matter, the Board needed to determine what actions to take to address the issue with the resident’s driveway. This is the work which was quoted for ten thousand dollars. The main concern of the Board on this issue was whether the town had the right of way to repave a section of the resident’s driveway or not. Hopkins explained that the recent repaving of the road was the reasoning for the issues which have arisen with the resident’s driveway.
“Well, normally when the city paves its streets the person that is going to use that street connects their driveway to it, without the city paying,” Alderman Tommy Goodman stated.
He explained that his concern on the issue was that if the Board were to step in and repave a section of this resident’s driveway it would cause legal trouble for the town in the future. At this point, Alderwoman Williams motioned for the Board to table further discussion on College Street until the Board made contact with the town attorney and sought advice on the issue at hand prior to any further action being taken. This was seconded by Alderman Goodman with all present in favor.
In other news the Board:
• Heard from Gary Bankston regarding repairs around town and requested a prioritized list of needs.
• Received the Water Department report from Galen Shumaker.
• Approved to pay standard bills.
• Agreed to look into options for illuminating the water tower, including pricing for installation and monthly costs.
• Approved to advertise in the Delta Business Journal and Mississippi Business Journal at the cost of $285 each for a one-eighth page ad.
• Agreed to purchase an ad for the Michael H Ball Golf Tournament in the amount of $300.
