Supervisors vote to widen and improve Panola Road

By Rupert Howell
Supervisors voted Monday to purchase additional property on two sides of Panola (Red Hill) Road for improvements and widening Panola from Viney Creek to Curtis Road during Monday’s meeting in Batesville going into executive session to discuss details of the proposed acquisition.
The county board also discussed permitting a gravel mine north and east of Sardis to be used as a rubbage pit. Land Use Commission officer Chad Meek said he wasn’t familiar with a request a few years back that concerned permitting the area but would look at his file and see where the project stood.
County Engineer Larry Britt said, “We’ll just deal with MDEQ (Miss. Dept. of Environmental Quality). You have to follow their rules. We’ll see what the permit says,” after Supervisor John Thomas, whose in-laws own the property, said he thought it had been previously approved.
The board also agreed for Southern Telecommunications to upgrade fiber phone lines at the county’s two courthouses and the jail that is expected to save Panola County approximately $500-$600 per month, according to County Administrator Kate Victor.
An earlier request from Shanon Caine to extend a road across county owned property to property that he is developing was denied by the board, who agreed to take no action on the matter.
“When he bought that property he knew what it was,” Thomas stated after Road Manager Lygunnah Bean noted it was just a “pig trail” currently.
Bean did get approval to use county equipment and manpower in Tallahatchie County for putting approximately two miles of DBST down at that county’s expense.
“They help us, we help them,” Bean explained and noted he needed his experienced drivers working on the project to assure it went quickly.
Bean said it would take approximately one day to do the job and Tallahatchie County would be responsible for hauling equipment to the site as he didn’t want the equipment driven that far.
Supervisors are not scheduled to meet again until November 6 at 9 a.m. in Sardis.