Lauderdale County Courthouse

Supervisors could save more than $100,000 in road repairs should fixes be approved by the Natural Resources Conservation Service of Mississippi. 

Lauderdale County could be partially reimbursed for fixes on three roads damaged by December rains through the Emergency Watershed Protection Program from NRCS that strives to protect infrastructure. 

Sharon McCarty, a supervisory engineer with NRCS, described a process where the county submits projects, such as Kewanee Road, Sam Gray Road and Clarkdale Road, sign an agreement with NRCS and then wait for approval from the state office. 

“The government can reimburse 75 percent of the construction costs,” McCarty said. “That’s the only drawback to our program is (that) I can’t tell you when funding could occur.”

Until the state approves the work, the county can’t work on the road or it will lose its reimbursement. McCarty said that costs such as engineering fees could also be covered under technical assistance from NRCS.

NRCS provided a cost estimate for the three roads along with the potential reimbursement: $35,650 for Clarkdale Road, with $26,738 reimbursed; $61,900 for Sam Gray Road, with $46,425 reimbursed; and $42,150 for Kewanee Road, with $31,613 reimbursed. For the estimated $139,700 in construction costs, the county could be reimbursed for $104,775.

In technical assistance, NRCS could provide $2,675 for Clarkdale Road, $4,643 for Sam Gray Road and $3,161 for Kewanee Road. 

For Kyle Rutledge, stabilizing Clarkdale and Sam Gray Road, both in his district, while saving money for taxpayers would go a long way.

“Clarkdale Road keeps eroding and coming closer to the edge of the road so we need to stabilize it,” Rutledge, the supervisor for District 5, said. “Both of those are dead-end roads and if they got washed out people wouldn’t be able to get out, especially on Sam Gray.”

Rutledge said that the last road fixed with money from NRCS, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, took approximately six months to be approved by the state.

“But it depends on Congress putting money in the bucket,” Rutledge said. “We’ll do what we have to do and the fixes will make them last a very long time.”

Travel plans

Supervisors will discuss their travel for the upcoming 2019 year on Monday. 

Potential trips include: the Lauderdale County Legislative Visit to Washington D.C. in February, the Mississippi Association of Supervisors Convention in Biloxi in June, the National Association of Black County Officials Conference in Wayne County, Michigan in May, The National Association of Counties Legislative Conference in Washington D.C. in March, the National Association of Counties annual conference in Las Vegas, Nevada in July, the Mississippi Association of Planning and Development Districts annual conference in Biloxi in April and the Mississippi Association of Supervisors Minority Caucus in Indianola in April.

Supervisors didn’t discuss details of those trips, such as the number of supervisors attending, potential travel costs, cost-saving measures or the purposes of these trips.

Last February, Lauderdale County taxpayers paid more than $15,500 to send 11 people on the legislative visit to Washington D.C. Supervisors said the trip was necessary to secure the federal courthouse, a key component of the renovation plan for the Lauderdale County Courthouse.

Purchasing the federal courthouse, home of the U.S. Postal Service office on 9th Street, has been cited as a reason for traveling to Washington D.C. in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018. Supervisors haven’t yet secured the federal courthouse.

The Board of Supervisors department has $396,104 in their total fiscal year budget, according to the county’s final budget, which doesn’t break the department down further.