The Jones County Board of Supervisors held a special meeting last week to discuss how to apportion millions of dollars of road and bridge funds this four-year term. Ronnie Clark, Wiley Pickering and Diane Shoemake of Chas. N. Clark Associates (the county engineer) met with the supervisors.
The engineers reviewed the roads and bridges that need immediate attention for repair, replacement or surface work, and they gave the board members a snapshot of the funds that should be available from the state for roads and bridges from now through December 2023.
Jones County has roughly $6.5 million of projected State Aid funding available for this four-year term, which includes $2.8 million left over from the previous board administration. Some of that money has already been programmed for construction, so the actual funding available from State Aid that has not been appropriated is just over $4 million.
There is a story behind the $2.8 million that was carried over from the previous board – the ongoing saga of hazardous mailboxes. The hazardous mailboxes in Jones County, as identified by State Aid engineers, caused the millions of dollars to not be released to Jones County for road and bridge repair last term, and it’s still an impediment to the county getting the money it desperately needs.
According to information conveyed by Shoemake to the supervisors last Wednesday, mailboxes that are not mounted on breakaway posts must be a minimum of 10 feet from the edge of the highway – that’s 10 feet from the front of the mailbox to the edge of the highway. Last year the county was dealing with nearly 100 such boxes, before trimming that number down to fewer than five. However, a recent inspection by State Aid engineers found more of the hazardous mailboxes (some due to new construction), which has pushed the number back up to about two dozen. The supervisors are tasked with getting homeowners to comply with state requirements, because big money is at stake.
Every dime of the money is needed, as the county currently has eight roads recommended for a slurry seal application and 16 bridges with a sufficiency rating less than 50. The bridge rating range is 0 - 100, with a rating below 50 representing a bad grade. Thirteen of the deficient bridges rated below 40 in the latest assessment, and seven fell below 30.
One bridge on Lower Myrick Road (Mill Creek) checked in at 15.2. Four of the bridges with a rating of less than 50 have high traffic counts, including Mill Creek mentioned above plus Long Branch on Orange Drive, Cypress Creek on Springhill Road, and Spring Creek on Springhill Road.
In addition to needing the money released from State Aid to help repair bad bridges and resurface roadways, the supervisors are also concerned that if they don’t get the hazardous mailboxes in compliance before a motorist strikes one and is injured, then the possibility of the county being launched into litigation exists.
“If someone was to get hurt by hitting one of those mailboxes, are we under extra liability since the state has put us on notice that we need to move them?” asked County CFO Charles Miller.
“You would be, Charles,” replied Clark. “It’s on your right-away. Any good lawyer would name the county in a lawsuit.
“Am I right?” Clark continued to County Administrator and Board Attorney Danielle Ashley.
“Yeah,” she responded.
“What if we have notified all of these people to move them and put in there (a letter) that it would be their liability if someone hit their mailbox?” chimed in Beat 1 Supervisor Johnny Burnett, the board president.
“It would help, but I don’t know if it would completely cover us,” stated Ashley.
With some of their money being held up by the state and some costly bridge and road projects looming in front of them, Beat 3 Supervisor Phil Dickerson said that “putting a band-aid” on some of the county’s road and bridge needs, although not the prime solution, is going to be necessary.
“We will have to patch as we go to keep the roads and bridges open until we get the money to fix them,” offered Dickerson.
“What Phil said is correct,” said Clark.
The supervisors authorized the county engineer to prioritize the projects and to make a recommendation on the best way to allocate the money they now have available.