The Sunflower County Board of Supervisors’ attempt to make some rural routes safer for residents has hit a few bumps.
The county has installed engineer-approved speed deterrent devices on Fisackerly and Beaverdam Roads, among others, but some motorists are complaining that the bumps are a nuisance and even against state law.
Engineer Ron Cassada said the speed bumps are properly installed and the signage meets the manual of uniform traffic control devices. According to Cassada he has received several complaints from motorists who travel those roads, and someone even sent him a copy of a 2005 Legislative bill that they understood as saying that the county could not install the bumps without his approval.
However, Cassada contends that the sender has misinterpreted the statute.
The speed devices simply have to be properly signed and designed for the speed and the restraints meet those requirements. Cassada said the county placed the bumps on straightaways where people are known to speed.
“It does what it is supposed to do. It truly does slow people down,” said Cassada.
District 4 Supervisor Anthony Clark said he is grateful for the ones installed on Fisackerly Road in his district because young children walk that road and motorists are constantly speeding on that stretch of roadway. Clark asserted that in defiance, some drivers have taken to driving off the road into the ditches to avoid the deterrents, which not only endangers their lives but others as well.
District 5 Supervisor Gloria Dickerson told her fellow lawmakers that Rome residents are requesting speed bumps for their community and wanted to know how the officials will address the citizen’s request. The road manager said he would work to get them installed.
After a discussion, the county lawmakers also decided to install cameras to monitor the posted roadways and get Sheriff James Haywood involved so his deputies can possibly assist in policing the areas by writing tickets for speeding.
In other business,
Cassada also presented the supervisors with a verbal update on some of the county’s ongoing projects. He reported that a crane was moved in to work on the East Paxton Road bridge to start dismantling it, the repairs on Moorhead-Belzoni Road have begun and the Jefcoat-Lehr Road work is still progressing.
The update on the Drew project was that the paving of Park Avenue was expected to start on Wednesday and be complete in a week.
The county lawmakers also received the road managers’ solid waste report. President Glenn Donald asked the managers for their help in eradicating the ever-increasing amount of illegal trash dumping in the county. “We’ve got to find a way to catch these people that are doing this major littering,” he said. He specifically mentioned the Eastmoor Subdivision area and Trans Fisheries Road. “It’s got to stop,” said Donald.
Donald said whole living room sets have been discarded in ditches and that affects the drainage. He suggested that the road managers post someone in unmarked vehicles to monitor the problem sites, so the culprits can be caught and fined. He mentioned the negative impact that the trashy areas have on the economic growth of the county.
Also, Dickerson asked Cassada about the required process for reopening the bridges that were closed by the federal inspectors to ensure that the county is not held liable. Cassada said the bridges are supposed to remain closed until they can be re-inspected by the original inspectors. He mentioned North Sheffield, Sunflower and East Minot Road bridges..
The supervisors also received the tax collector’s year-end and insolvency report.
They received and accepted the solid waste clerk’s report however the unfinalized county house count report, which shows a slight decrease in the total number of homes being charged for service, was not voted on at that time.
The clerk also gave her year-end report, which apparently shows nearly $1 million in arrears owed to the county in garbage collections, but that amount encompasses multiple decades and includes inactive accounts and accounts that were left open due to the account holder being deceased.
The lawmakers heard a report from Economic Development Director Steve Shurden on the Monsanto Building, which included a request by someone to use the facility as a warehouse on a month-to-month basis.
They also discussed the fate of the Ludlow building, because environmental tests will need to be done before three of the nine large transformers out there can be removed.
Earlier in the year, Shurden announced his plans to resign from the position so he reminded the board that the application deadline is Friday and told them that so far 9 or 10 applicants have made submissions.
