Sunflower County is going to have a public hearing for citizens regarding speed bumps on Airport Road.
The board of supervisors was not able to come to an agreement on the matter so a hearing will give citizens a chance to weigh in on the issue.
The discussion began after the Road Manager/ Solid Waste Manager presented quotes on the cost of speed bumps.
District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald wanted clarification on who wanted the speed bumps.
From his understanding, people in the county area did not want the speed bumps.
“The people in the county don’t want them,” Donald said. “Those that work and come in with the big trucks. They say it is affecting their trucking. We had this problem 10 years ago.”
Donald was not in favor of the rumble strips.
“You can cause somebody to get hurt out there with speedbumps,” Donald said. “That’s an ongoing road. You put speedbumps in resident areas. That’s like putting a speedbump on a highway.”
Board President Riley Rice said that he was told it was dangerous and people were still speeding.
“He said they were out there the other day drag racing,” Rice said.
There was a bit of confusion about what the board previously decided to do about the bumps.
Board Attorney Johnny McWilliams chimed in on the matter.
“My recollection is that y’all said you would get the engineer to find out what kind of bumps would be allowed on a state aid road,” McWilliams said.
Donald had a similar understanding.
“We told Ron (Cassada) to look at it to have them brought back to us to discuss,” Donald said. “That's what the board order says. That was the direction, giving Ron the go-ahead to go and look for some.”
Rice was under the impression that there was a board order to place the speed bumps but they didn’t proceed because Airport Road was still under construction.
Fairley confirmed that they started placing speed bumps but they later took them up.
Donald said Fairley placed the speed bumps on Airport Road per the request of District 3 Supervisor Ben Gaston.
Donald suggested they have a hearing about the matter.
Gaston agreed with the suggestion and made the motion to advertise a hearing about whether or not to place speed bumps on Airport Road.
