Newton County supervisors responded to residents’ concerns about Union’s Deerfield Subdivision last Tuesday after Facebook comments reignited a long-standing argument over upkeep of the roads.
Chancery Clerk George Hayes said he had noticed several inflammatory and false statements about the Union subdivision and asked County Attorney Jason Mangum to explain the situation.
“It’s come to my attention there’s a whole lot of Facebook activity regarding Deerfield subdivision in Union. There’s a whole lot of untruths in that, a whole lot of mistruths in that, and I’m going to ask the board attorney to address exactly what is going on with Deerfield.”
Mangum said the issue of Deerfield subdivision, specifically Lakeview Drive, started with a previous Beat 3 supervisor in the late 1990s, early 2000s.
“In the late 90s, early 2000s, a big block of land west of Union was acquired by a company. That company began subdividing it. They developed it and subdivided it into a residential neighborhood,” he said.
Typically, Mangum said, subdivision developers will have a land survey done with the locations of proposed roads and parcels. The developers will then give that survey to the county and ask the county to accept the subdivision into the public record.
“This was never done,” he said. “The early paperwork with the subdivision indicated that it was going to be done, but that was never done.”
As far as the paperwork is concerned, the subdivision is still just a survey with parcels outline, Mangum said.
Then, in 2001, the subdivision developer sent a letter to the previous supervisor for Beat 3, asking him to accept the subdivision. The board voted on it, and the motion passed unanimously, Mangum said.
However, in 2011, Beat 3 Supervisor Charles Moulds discovered the road, Lakeview Drive, was never added to the public road registry and declined residents’ requests to fix the road.
“State law says a road has to be on the road registry or it’s not a public road,” Mangum said.
The next time Deerfield Subdivision came up was in 2015, Mangum said. At that time, supervisors examined the minutes from 2001 to see what had happened with the county accepting the subdivision.
State law requires two disinterested supervisors, meaning supervisors from other beats, go examine the road and a public hearing be held.
“None of that happened,” he said. “Or, there was no evidence that that happened. So, out of an abundance of caution, you know because it’s a severe prohibition against using public funds on private property, we contacted various agencies, including but not limited to the Attorney General’s office.”
The Mississippi Attorney General responded saying it did not appear the board had followed procedure in 2001, and the county’s adoption of the road was not valid. They said the board needed to go back and re-do the road adoption process, Mangum said.
In November 2015, Beat 1 Supervisor Kenneth Harris, Beat 2 Supervisor Joe Alexander, Beat 4 Supervisor L.M. Bonds and Beat 5 Supervisor Jimmy Johnson, along with County Attorney Duane Stanford, went to inspect Deerfield Lane Lakeview Drive.
In their report, the supervisors stated the road had several issues which would make adopting the road cost prohibitive to the county. The report states:
“On or about November 10, we personally examined the roads known as Lakeview Drive and Deerfield Lane located just west of Union, Mississippi off Highway 492. We find and report as follows: 1) Road bed is inadequate and in our opinion would need significant work to repair; 2) Dam on east end seems to be compromised and would need to be totally reconstructed in order to maintain an adequate base; 3) An inadequate amount of asphalt was laid when built to be durable and is currently in disrepair; 4) Current utility lines would have to be moved in order to bring the road up to State Aid Specs; 5) The anticipated costs to properly repair and replace said roads would be significant. Due to these factors we do not feel the acceptance of these roads would be in the best interest of the citizens of Newton County.”
Stanford’s report on the cost of asphalt for the road, sent to County Administrator Steve Seale on Friday, Nov. 20, 2015, found the cost of Hot Mix Asphalt alone would be $106,228.
The annual budget for road repair in Beat 3 is $500,000, meaning accepting Lakeview Drive would cost the Beat 3 supervisor 40 percent of their budget for the year, Mangum said.
“They have to be good stewards of the little bit of money they get to construct and maintain the roads they have,” he said.
And, he added, even if Moulds had agreed to move forward, accepting a road requires a majority vote from the full board.
Currently, Mangum said, Lakeview Drive is not a public road, meaning it would be illegal to spend county funds to repair or maintain the road. The decision in 2015 not to accept the road was not done out of malice or to spite the residents of Deerfield subdivision, he said. The county simply cannot afford to spend that much money on one road.
Mangum said he had not seen the conversation on social media, but he hoped his information would clear up any misunderstanding residents had about the county’s actions over the past 20 years.
