OKTIBBEHA COUNTY – Supervisors plan to get a full accounting of the current conditions of all county roads and create an interactive map to visualize which are in need of repairs.
The board unanimously approved $10,000 to go toward building a rating system for county road evaluation during its Monday meeting at the Chancery Court House.
The board hopes the new system will allow it to approach road repairs from a more data-driven position.
“I think we just realized the more data we have when it comes to these issues, the better informed decisions we can make,” said Board President and District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard. “Sometimes it just takes us a little while to digest it and I think that’s basically what happened.”
The plan was originally proposed by County Engineer Clyde Pritchard during the board’s Aug. 3 meeting, but it was tabled at the time due to reservations District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams raised about starting new projects before hiring a full time engineer. Williams raised no similar concerns during Monday’s meeting.
The proposed plan is similar to Starkville’s approach to road maintenance, where roads are evaluated by Southaven-based company Civil-Link and given a score out of 10. Starkville paid Civil-Link $54,500 for its initial analysis of the city’s roads.
Pritchard’s rating system will assign all county roads a priority score out of 100 points. Half of the score will be broken down into different factors, including up to 25 points for pavement condition, up to 10 points for smoothness, up to eight points for shoulder condition and up to seven for right-of-way conditions.
The other half will come from traffic volume and route significance, which are given equal waiting in the system.
Once a road is evaluated – just like with Starkville’s system – its score, as well as the GIS data and drainage data associated with the road, will be uploaded onto an interactive map.
The county already has data for some of its roads, but the roads missing data will be driven and videoed by Pritchard Engineering.
Trainer said this is just a starting off point for the board, and one of the advantages of working with Pritchard on this project is it can be adjusted as needed.
“We’ll probably have a better experience doing this initially with (Pritchard), based upon he knows us and we know him,” Trainer told The Dispatch. “… I think with the county engineering, we have some flexibility in there to build off what he can do. … I think it’s a better use of resources (than outsourcing), especially when you’re doing something relatively new.”
Pritchard’s proposal suggests the county reevaluate all roads every two to three years and reevaluate the lowest quartile of roads every year.
The proposed timeline would have the map ready for a final board presentation in 17 weeks.
Countywide sewer district takes next step
The board on Monday voted to take the next step in evaluating the possibility of creating a countywide sewer district.
A feasibility study commissioned by the county found a countywide utility district for wastewater would allow the county to prepare to serve a growing population with an anticipated influx of 9,000 to 14,000 new residents by 2043. Starkville Utilities currently processes the bulk of the county’s sewage.
The county will spend $150,000 to complete the preliminary evaluations proposed in the draft feasibility study, which will complete seven tasks to move the proposal forward including an affordability analysis, an assessment of the legal pathway and proposing sites for the wastewater treatment plants.
The board hopes to have the legal pathway evaluated by January so it can bring any necessary legislation to the legislature during the 2027 session. The board legally can not create a new countywide authority without legislative approval.
This first phase of evaluations is expected to take nine to 12 months to complete.
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