D own to a man, the Board of Supervisors got proactive with their leadership, as did the county’s Road Department, when it came to bridge problems in Simpson County.
It all started when the feds got involved and determined that many of the existing bridges in Simpson County were deficient. All together, 18 bridges were closed to local traffic in this process. This did not happen just in Simpson County, it happened all over Mississippi. But it got the leadership in Simpson County, namely the Board of Supervisors, to take a proactive approach to correcting the local bridge problems.
The closure of 18 bridges in the county had a crippling effect, at least to those who lived on the other side of the bridges. The list included Saratoga to Sharon, New Hope, Grave Yard, Tom Berry, Jupiter, Macedonia, Van Zandt, Jake Barnes, Harrisville to Braxton, Star to Braxton, Robert Russell, Pokal, David Sherman, Heed Neeley, 472, Boss Stein, and additionally Cox Road and Guysel Road, which the county had closed.
So the big question was, “What did this do to the Road Department budget?”
It was really pretty simple: all the money budgeted to other county projects was put on hold and county leaders met the emergency need for bridge repair head on. They quickly saw that a lot of the work that needed to be done was not in the skill set of the existing work force. They employed the services of an outside company which is often used locally.
The county has been operating under extended emergency order to correct the issue. This allowed them to keep a contractor working to correct the problem.
County Administrator Rheul Dickinson was quoted in a magazine saying that the budget was close to $200,000 for the needed repair. Recently 15 of the 18 bridges that had been closed by the state have been reopened for business, but now more deficient bridges have been found so it appears that county funds will take yet another hit for road repair.
It should not come as a big surprise that taxes are going to be a major part of any and all future county budget discussions.
Fortunately, the Road Department has become really proactive in doing any and all the work they can do in association with the closures.
This has really sped up the process of getting unserviceable bridges back into service in short order. Of the 18 bridges that were closed only three are still closed: Boss Steen Road, Heed Neely and Van Zandt.
The Road Department, as well as the county, has worked diligently to fix, repair and reopen these bridges and roads to better serve the people of Simpson County. The community needs to show their support to the county’s leadership and workers for a job well done!
