By Billy Davis

Elliot and Britt engineer Steven Gray announced Monday a pair of State Aid road projects that will improve two well-traveled roadways in the county.

Gray advised supervisors to approve State Aid funds to overlay Terza Road east of Batesville and a portion of Eureka Road, located south of Batesville. The county board approved both requests.
Gray estimated Terza’s overlay would cost $870,300 to improve the roadway from Highway 6 to Highway 35 North.  

Improving a portion of Eureka Road will cost approximately $569,500.

State Aid funds flow to Panola County from the Miss. Department of Transportation, allowing the Board of Supervisors to use state funds to improve roads and bridges in the county’s five districts.  

Six miles of Eureka Road enjoyed a $1.2 million upgrade in 2006, from Highway 51 to the road’s intersection with Good Hope Road, and the new project will continue that work to Shuford Road further south.

“We’re improving it a little at a time. I wish we had money to do it all at once,” Kelly Morris, the District 4 supervisor, told The Panolian.

Eureka Road and Terza Road are both located in District 4.

In other county business:

•    A Kosciusko construction company, Ralph McKnight and Son, won a bid to construct hangars at the Panola County Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration is funding the project.

McKnight submitted a bid for $574,783. Supervisors approved McKnight, the second-lowest bid, after the lowest bidder failed to submit required paperwork for disadvantaged and minority subcontractors.
Three of the four bidders, including McKnight, managed to submit the proper paperwork, board attorney Bill McKenzie pointed out.

•    Hancock Bank submitted the lowest bid for Panola County to finance $1.7 million to purchase new dump trucks and road graders.

The bid of 1.58 percent from Hancock beat out bids from Regions Bank (1.79 percent), BancorpSouth (1.80 percent), and Trustmark Bank (1.98 percent).

•    Panola County Circuit Clerk Melissa Meek Phelps announced a part-time hiring for the Sardis courthouse.

Phelps said the part-time employee, Daphne Smith, will work alongside a knowledgeable part-time employee, Ann Rippee, who retired from full-time work in the circuit clerk’s office.  
Kim Dill, who worked full time in Sardis, left for a position with the sheriff’s department task force, Phelps said.

Phelps told supervisors she has been working three days a week in the Sardis office until she filled the slot.

•    Sheriff Dennis Darby announced the hiring of a full-time deputy, Willie Harris. Harris replaces former deputy Earl Burdette, the sheriff said.

•    McKenzie announced the U.S. Justice Department has approved Panola County’s decision to move a voting precinct.

The Cold Springs precinct will now operate from the Sardis Lake fire station, he said.

Voters had previously cast ballots at Butler Farms.