OKTIBBEHA COUNTY — Supervisors on Monday handed their lobbyist a “moon” and a “star” in projects for which to request state funding at the upcoming legislative session in Jackson.
The “moon,” as it were, is money toward a new county administration complex at the site of the old Felix Long Hospital. If the county misses that mark, “the star” would be funds to improve up to six miles of Crawford Road.
The board reached this consensus at its last meeting of 2022 after a brief discussion with Austin Barbour of the lobbying firm Clearwater Group. While Barbour at first urged supervisors to get behind one project, he later advised it might be better to have requests for a large brick-and-mortar project and a road project, which would be less expensive to complete, on “parallel tracks.” That way, if the legislature balks at the large project, the county has a fallback that might get some money.
“It’s never easy to pick just one priority in a county that is growing as much as Oktibbeha County,” he said.
Barbour also urged the county to approve a unanimous resolution solidifying those lobbying priorities no later than Jan. 15 and provide detailed project descriptions, estimated costs and how much of the funding the county intends to match.
Supervisors agreed to give top priority to the multi-million dollar county complex, which would house administrative offices, justice court and conceivably make room for the newly established county court offices to move into the courthouse annex with circuit court. The county is seeking bids on demolition of the old hospital now standing at the site.
“We’re maybe thinking smaller sometimes than we need to when we’re thinking roads,” said board president Bricklee Miller, noting the board historically sends road projects as its legislative priority. “We need to go and ask for a larger project.”
Board attorney Rob Roberson, however, said a paltry amount of state funds toward that project — which would be built in phases in the best of circumstances — wouldn’t really help much.
“The reality is if we’re only getting $250, $300, $400,000, it would be far better to allocate this money toward a road,” he said.
Roberson also is a state representative.
District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer suggested seeking “a couple of million” for Crawford Road, then using whatever amount the state approves.
“I think that area is ripe for growth, and if we invest dollars down there, we will see development, things that will come back in the short term as a good return on investment,” Trainer said. “… (It could be a) connection for the southern end of the county that sometimes seems like there’s not a lot of emphasis put on it like other areas.”
Marvell Howard, who represents District 3, put forward Douglastown Road near Maben as a possible road project, as well, but eventually agreed to prioritize Crawford Road.
“The county complex would be reaching for the moon, but (we need) to have another couple of stars out there in case we miss,” he said.
Oktoc Road, ARPA
The moving target that has been the county’s planned allocation for American Rescue Plan Act funds moved again on Monday, with the board agreeing to shift up to $600,000 to a new emergency management software system and clawing back $1 million it had previously dedicated to Oktoc Road.
When the dust settled, the software allocation reduced the county lake dam’s share of ARPA to $2 million. Oktoc Road was left with $1.5 million, with the money taken from that project now unallocated.
Supervisors had previously agreed to put $2.5 million in ARPA toward repaving almost 11 miles of Oktoc Road in District 5. The project, which will cost just short of $4.1 million, also had $1 million from the legislature, with the rest coming from State Aid and local road funds.
Over Williams’ protests, the board on Monday noted Williams’ district had enough unspent local road funds to finish Oktoc Road without the extra million in ARPA — supervisors had originally only designated $1.5 million to that project.
Williams said he wanted to use those local funds, designated to his district through bonds and the annual road budget, on other projects. To placate his protests, the board, at Trainer’s urging, transferred more than $400,000 in State Aid funds that had been designated for District 2 to the Oktoc Road project.
All of this, however, has the contingency of whether ARPA spending on roads is legal.
Counties that received more than $10 million in ARPA could claim up to that amount a “revenue loss” during the COVID-19 pandemic, freeing them to spend that amount on any normal government expenditure.
Oktibbeha County received $9.6 million in ARPA. Supervisors tasked him on Monday with finding out whether the final rule for those federal funds will allow them to spend the funds on government operations, such as roads or the dam, without declaring a revenue loss.
The board has allocated $3.5 million in ARPA to the East Oktibbeha Wastewater District and another $1 million to Sturgis-Maben Road
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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