LIBERTY — Concerned citizens of District 2 confronted Amite County supervisors about road conditions on Monday.
The residents had been holding private meetings to discuss the conditions of Perry, Baxter and Ash roads before appearing before the board.
Rosie Wilson and Angela Hagan asked District 2 Supervisor Will Powell about the issue.
“I don’t want people thinking, ‘Rosie down there picking on Will,’ I’m not,” Wilson said. “I just want you to do your job, that’s what I want from all of you. That’s what we voted for you for.”
Wilson presented pictures of trashed roads and potholes, but Powell told her a lot of those issues have to do with the weather and is beyond his control.
“Now, it doesn’t rain all the time. You can get out and try to fix something,” Wilson responded.
Resident Herbert Bell noted supervisors discussed plans to repair bridges using state money on Perry Road in June but that work hasn’t been done.
“Now, they give you the money to fix those bridges. Also, they give you the money to fix the Perry Road, Baxter Road, Kahnville Road, Perkins Road. What did you do with that money?” he asked.
“We try to fix those bridges,” board president Jackie Whittington said. “We bid them out, the contractor comes in and fixes them, we bid them out and each one of those bridges — it ain’t $50,000 to $60,000, it’s hundreds of thousands.
“Some of them are half a million,” Whittington said.
He said state road and bridge funding has been cut and “we didn’t receive anything.”
Freddy Moody also expressed his concern for Baxter Road.
“You try to miss one pothole, you land in another one,” he said. “We didn’t come over here to argue. We don’t want any confusion. We just want to work together to get the job done.”
Later in the meeting, Wilson complained about the condition of voting precincts.
She said the Southwest Volunteer Fire Department building, located just past Perry Road, is in bad condition, and noted that poll workers found a snake in the bathroom and are scared to go into the building.
“Now, I agree with you on that, the building is in bad shape,” Powell said.
Emergency Management Director Grant McCurley agreed that the building wasn’t in the best condition.
Supervisor Butch Graves asked if the county could place a portable building beside the fire station.
“There isn’t enough room,” Powell said. “I just want to make sure they’re decent or we’re not going to get any workers to work there.”
