Lauderdale County crews are moving forward with repairs to a bridge on York Road after the Board of Supervisors on Monday declared the need for an emergency repair.

 

Road Manager Rush Mayatt said the structure is an old concrete bridge that was expanded sometime in the 1980s. One of the wings, which help prevent erosion of bridge approaches, has failed on the north side and needs to be addressed, he said.

 

“I definitely need to move forward this week on this,” he said.

 

H.E. Mosley Construction Inc. provided an overall quote of $53,820 for the repairs, while Walters Construction Company Inc. provided an overall quote of $66,410. Mayatt said both vendors provided two quotes as the work was broken up into two parts, and the numbers presented were the totals from each company.

 

A third vendor had been contacted but had yet to submit hard numbers, he said.

 

County Administrator Chris Lafferty said the repair meets the criteria of an emergency, which would allow the county to go in and make the repairs. Once a total cost in known, the board will have to ratify the cost on the back end.

 

East of the Whynot community, owners of land along Ponds Road have been unable to access their properties due to road issues caused by the railroad. Supervisor Kyle Rutledge said the railroad crossing has made the road impassible, and closure of the road on the Alabama side of the state line has meant landowners cannot access their timber and hunting properties.

 

“They need to be able to access their land,” he said.

 

Mayatt said Meridian & Bigbee Railroad, which owns that particular section of track, does not recognize Ponds Road as an official crossing and is reluctant to get involved. Earlier conversations about the issue did not yield any results.

 

“All rail companies here in the past few years have tried to really decrease the amount of crossings because of the liability standpoint,” he said. “That’s kind of where it’s been.”

 

The county reached out to the railroad several months ago but didn’t hear back, and the project has sat idle since, Mayatt said. If the board wants to move forward, he said he recommends sending a certified letter to the railroad.

 

In other business, the county’s costs for residential garbage service are going up after Meridian Waste notified the Board of Supervisors it will implement a 5.2% Consumer Price Index increase beginning with the May 2025 invoice. The increase will raise the cost of service to $13.45 per can.

 

The increase will not immediately impact residents as the county charges households a flat rate of $168 annually to offset the garbage expense. The last increase in garbage costs for county residents was in January 2024 when the cost rose from $100 to $168, the first increase in 12 years. At the time, supervisors were told an annual fee of at least $170 was needed for the county to break even.

 

Any increase in cost to residents will have to be voted in by the Board of Supervisors before going into effect.