The Lamar County Board of Supervisors took care of some legal paperwork Thursday morning on its way to issuing up to $7 million in road construction bonds.

The board approved hiring the firm of Butler Snow to issue the bonds during the Aug. 22 meeting at the William J. “Pete” Gamble III Chancery Courthouse in Purvis. Attorney Elizabeth Clark explained the two resolutions that were later passed by the board.

elizabeth clark

Attorney Elizabeth Clark

“The first resolution is called a no protest resolution,” she said. “You remember back on the Aug. 22 meeting how you moved forward with the intent of issuing not more than $7 million in general obligation bonds for road projects? We had to provide the public with notice of that intent, which we did by filing notice of intent in the paper, allowing them to file written protests on or before nine o’clock this morning. So, this just says that the resolution was published and we do have the proof of publications, and no written protests were filed.”

The second resolution is a bond resolution, Clark said.

“This resolution moves forward with approving the formal documents that are necessary to actually sell the funds in the market,” she said. “We don’t have to issue all the $7 million; we can issue less if the intent is to do that.”

At the Aug. 22 meeting, County Administrator Joseph “Jody” Waits said payoff from the 10-year bonds would come from state funds.

Joseph "Jody" Waits - Lamar County Administrator

Lamar County, County Administrator Joseph "Jody" Waits

“The funding to pay that bond back is going to come from the infrastructure bill that was passed by the Legislature in last year’s session,” he said. “We expect to get close to $800,000 a year in new money for road projects and infrastructure. That’s what we’re pledging to pay the bond back over ten years.”

Starting early on the construction will save money, Waits said.

“By doing that, we can go ahead and take advantage of lower bond rates and construction costs that are only going up,” he said. “We can get started now and get these things done rather than save that in years and try to do it piecemeal.”

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