Resident petitions about road conditions; county points to tight budgets
A citizen presented petitions for better roads to the Marion County Board of Supervisors at its meeting Monday, but supervisors said they are doing all they can with the resources at hand.
Delores P. Porter said she was chosen to represent an unspecified group of people to demand the roads be fixed and better maintained.
“I have been researching. I have been to the state’s office of the transportation office. I went to Jim Hood’s office to give me some answers, and it all boiled down to coming to the local office,” Porter said.
“The issue is the road conditions: to me the roads are not (maintained). I looked up the codes for road maintenance, and it is supposed to (be) maintained by the local office,” she said.
Porter said pothole-filled roads are dangerous, especially for school buses, elderly drivers and handicapped people.
“What do we need to do, the community?” Porter asked the board.
Board President Terry Broome responded, “There is a lot of work taking place. Bridges are being repaired. Roads all over are needing repaired. Each of us are spending in excess of a million dollars each on bridges. Main concern is getting the bridges fixed. That is our top priority.”
Broome explained the county didn’t close all the bridges but rather the federal government did, deeming the bridges with the wooden pillars unsafe. He said one bridge takes about a third of the available money (one million) and that it does not go a long way.
“We are working as hard as we possibly can,” Broome said.
Broome said the board is hoping when the new term starts in 2020 more State Aid funding will become available. But he added those funds are only available one-time per every four-year term. By the end of the first year, he said it is pretty much all spent and what the county receives has to be divided between the five districts.
Porter questioned why work was done on Gates Road but stopped at Good Hope Road. Broome asked District 1 Supervisor Randy Dyess, who said it should be on the list for 2020.
Broome explained that $50 million sounds like a lot of money, but when it is divided into 82 counties and then into five districts per county, there might be enough to repair one bridge in each district.
“A pothole can make you flip over,” Porter said. “At night, you can’t see them.”
District 5 Supervisor Calvin Newsom said, “When you look at small rural counties such as Marion County, we are on budget restraints. When you go to Lamar County you see nice roads, but Lamar County is growing with businesses and new homes, which means more money. It’s hard to do what you would really love to do. Lamar County has new revenue; Marion County does not. On our local roads, we maximized the money we have.”
Newsom said, “Our population is getting older, and our younger people are leaving looking for work. Our tax revenue is dropping. It is not just one entity; it is multiple entities involved.”
Porter thanked the board for allowing her to speak.
Pictured Above: A pen stuck in a pothole shows its depth Monday on Russell Road. Resident Delores P. Porter presented a petition about road conditions to county supervisors. | Photo by Susan Amundson
