WINONA – The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors voted to pave three miles on county roads annually instead of the traditional two miles each year.
Following a suggestion by Supervisor Janet Harper to plan to pave one mile in each district per year to be equally dispersed throughout the districts, a discussion ensued about how to better the county’s longtime paving program. Over the years, the program’s success has been stalled due to skyrocketing costs of paving.
Originally, according to Board President Keith McGee, the county’s paving program was budgeted to pave 10 miles per each four-year board term, however, over the last 10 years, costs for paving materials tripled, and the board settled on a two mile annual goal that rotated from district to district.
Supervisor Ron Wood suggested that if the county did not use fly ash, which is very expensive to haul from the supplier, the county could afford to do three miles each year if $50,000 or so was added to the paving budget.
Wood said a road in his district was paved without fly ash, and it is just now needing maintenance – 18 years later. County Road Manager Chris Breazeale agreed that paving without fly ash didn’t seem to lessen the quality of the paving job so far. The supervisors unanimously decided to move forward without the fly ash in upcoming paving projects and pave three miles of county roads each year instead of two.
In other county news, the board gave Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce executive director permission to contact the owner of two properties regarding two plots of land the county is interesting in developing for industrial prospects,
Stidham said the Mississippi Development Authority offers grant money to aid in economic development, and she plans to seek at least $50,000 to help develop a sizable tract of land that would be attractive to prospects. Grant applications are due by the first of November.
Stidham explained that if a plot of land is not available if the county is approved for grant funds, money received will go toward updating the industrial parks in Winona and Kilmichael.
Montgomery County Sheriff Bubba Nix announced the resignation of Deputy Ryan Smith, who was recently accepted in the Mississippi Highway Patrol training school. The board approved Barry Gregg, former Winona assistant chief of police, to replace Smith at the department.
