Town of Decatur Mayor Max Anderson was on the agenda at the March 4 Newton County Board of Supervisors meeting for advice and help in finding some funding to improve the section of Little Rock Decatur Road in the city limits of Decatur.
Anderson told the board that the section of road between Highway 15 and the city limits, measuring about six-tenths of a mile, is in bad condition and needed some attention that the town didn’t have funding to cover, adding that while the potholes are not deep, the slurry seal keeps popping out.
“I’m being told that it’s going to have to be milled to get that slurry seal, that was put on it about 10 to 12 years ago, off and get it back down just so you can come back over it with asphalt,” said Anderson.
In the past, the county would try to patch up deteriorating holes, but Anderson said the only way to truly fix it is to lay asphalt.
“The solution is going to be asphalt. There’s too much traffic. I wouldn’t be surprised that the car count on that road is easily 2,000 to 3,000 cars a day, especially Monday through Friday,” said Anderson. “Of course, heavy traffic is what tears it up and just wasn’t the right kind of base, slurry seal, when the town put it on there.”
Anderson told the board that he had applied last year for a 2024 Congressional Funding Grant through Congressman Michael Guest’s office, who prioritizes transportation and first responders, but did not get it. After a recent meeting with Guest and his staff, Anderson said it was recommended that he reapply for the grant in 2025. Anderson said he would reapply but wasn’t sure that they could wait so long for the funding. According to Anderson, the federal government is still working off of the 2023 budget due to passing continuous resolutions.
“If we were to be rewarded, we wouldn’t know until the summer and the money would be year and a half away,” said Anderson. “I don’t know if the road can wait that long.”
Anderson said that he was on hand to ask the board for a letter of recommendation to include with the application and advice on if there was a quicker way to get the road fixed.
Beat 4 Supervisor Charles Godwin suggested that Anderson approach Representative Randy Rushing and Senator Tyler McCaughn about some funding from the state, adding he would know if he could get state funding by October or November of this year. He also suggested getting prices for the work so he’d know how much funds would be needed.
Anderson said that he would do that and also still send an application for the 2025 Congressional Funding Grant.
“If you need a letter, we can get a letter done,” said Godwin. “I’d do all that and still go the state money route. And if we see any other way that we could assist, we’ll try to assist.”
District 1 Supervisor Terry Frazier said that he’d be happy to try to help out with the pothole patcher for the time being. Harrison echoed the sentiment, saying that Beat 2 would try to help too.
In other business, the county:
• Heard from Gloria Campbell, who said that for the last few years they had been asking for help with potholes and uncut grass along Corinth Road in Beat 5, but nothing is ever done about it. Beat 5 Supervisor Aaron Clark introduced himself to Campbell and said that he had some guys that should have done some work on the road two or three weeks earlier. Campbell said they did, but some of the gravel work had already started to come off again. She added that there are plenty of homes on the road, they’re seeing other nearby roads getting improvements and wanted to know what it would take to get the road repaved. Clark said he couldn’t tell her if the road was going to get paved or give her a date on it, but the road is on his mind and on his list for his guys to keep an eye on it. Campbell mentioned some other issues that she had with the road near her church. Clark exchanged phone numbers with her and said that he would ride out there later that week and take a look at the issue with her.
• Approved for Sheriff Joedy Pennington to apply for the Homeland Security Grant that is a 100 percent grant.
• Approved renewing insurance with MASIT.
• Approved advertising for someone to tear down the Reman Building for materials.
• Approved rejecting a bid of $210 from M and D Metals for a surplus Beat 3 2006 Ford Ranger and re-posting an ad for bids.
• Approved advertising for an Energy Service Provider to serve as a general contractor for the courthouse HVAC project.
• Approved junking two scanners on the Chancery inventory.
• Approved a $1,260 yearly contract with BIS Digital for maintaining court recording machines.
• Approved moving $2,000 from the Sheriff’s budget to be used for drug buy money.
• Approved appointing Terry Frazier as Newton County representative on the Multi County Community Agency Board.
• Approved removing Cindy Horton as the signatory on the Solid Waste bank account and replacing it with Suzanne ????
• Approved an easement for MDOT to repair a bridge on Interstate 20 over Norman Road.
• Approved to declare surplus and post for bids the following items: ice machine, chain saw, and other scrap.
• Delinquent Justice Court funds for January 21-February 20 were $1,389.40. American Municipals collected $1,391.77 for the same period. 313 new cases were opened and fines in the amount of $93,682 were levied. $3,843.25 was collected from those cases. There were 70 dismissals for the period.
• Beat 3 road crews buried a horse on the property of 2053 Strong Road due to possible infectious or contagious disease. There is a copy of the veterinary certificate.
• Approved making Good Friday, on March 29, a state holiday for county employees after requests to swap the holiday from Confederate Memorial Day on April 29.
• Godwin encouraged the board to find projects within the county that could benefit from funds from the Pat Harrison Waterway, which provides funding for 50% up to $25,000 towards projects that involves waterways.
• The board went into executive session to discuss Economic Development. After exiting the session, it was announced that no action was taken.
• Set the next board meeting for April 1 at 10 a.m.
