Lauderdale County supervisors are weighing the county’s need for a new paving machine and road repairs to Sophia Lane against the available funding and projects that need to be put on hold if they choose to go ahead with the purchases.

In a work session Thursday, the Board of Supervisors heard from Ben Jones of Puckett Machinery about an opportunity to purchase a used paving machine in like-new condition. The county’s current machine has been plagued by maintenance issues, putting paving efforts on hold while parts are ordered and repairs are made.

Jones said he has a paver available that is slightly smaller than what the county currently has, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The county’s current machine, a 1055 model, is a large paver often employed in highway paving and other projects where long stretches of road need to be paved, he said.

Going with a smaller paver, Jones said, will improve mobility, making it a better choice for patchwork and working in smaller areas.

“This one is going to be easier to move around,” he said.

Although not as big as the 1055, Jones said, the machine is more than capable of meeting the county’s needs. In fact, he said, several neighboring counties have gone with the same size machine in recent years over the larger pieces of equipment.

Road Manager Rush Mayatt said buying a used machine will likely knock between $75,000-$80,000 off the price, but with just 330 hours on it, the equipment is almost new.

The county recently rolled over 5,000 hours on its current paving machine and had to replace a number of wear parts upon reaching that milestone, Mayatt said. The machine is currently out of commission due to suspected generator issues, he said.

If the county choses to move forward with the purchase, it will need to draw up specifications on what it is looking for and advertise for bids. Mayatt said supervisors will also need to figure out where the funding will be coming from as the purchase was not included in this year’s budget.

Sophia Lane

Supervisors are also pondering how best to proceed with repairs to Sophia Lane in Collinsville. Mayatt said the road has been on the county’s radar for some time, but coming up with a fix will be more complicated that originally thought.

Sophia Lane is more than just adding a few inches of asphalt, Mayatt said, as concrete driveways and problems with the road’s subgrade make the work more complex. Preliminary numbers, he said, put the cost of repairs around $430,000 for the road, which is just over a quarter-mile long.

That $430,000, Mayatt said, is a minimum number to correct the problems the right way. Supervisors may be tempted to lessen the financial blow by patching or doing temporary repairs, he said, but that is not the best way forward.

“Anything less than that you’re throwing your money away because it’s not going to last,” he said.

Lauderdale County accepted Sophia Lane as a public road in 2019 as part of the Maiden Estates II subdivision, Mayatt said, and it is a prime example of why the county needs to have a written policy concerning accepting new roads. The issues with the road should have been addressed by the developer, he said, but the responsibility now falls on the county and the taxpayers.

Supervisor Craig Houston said he fully supports putting a policy in place to both protect the county from similar situations and to make sure everyone is treated fairly. Consistency is the only way to be fair, he said, and a written policy will create that.

Mayatt said his suggestion for funding the work is to use funds from the county’s next allocation of internet use tax, which it will receive in July. Cities and counties receive portions of a 7% use tax on internet sales with the state Department of Revenue sending funds in January and July each year.

If supervisors do go that route, however, there will be no more use tax available for other projects until January 2025, he said.

“It would basically deplete it,” he said.

Supervisor Kyle Rutledge said the board has other road projects that have been waiting for that use tax money. If the county spends it all on Sophia Lane, he said, other projects will be pushed back at least six months.