Batesville’s Mayor and Board of Aldermen have identified seven streets in the city limits that will be improved with either standard overlays and microseals, or ground up and repaved, this fall.

The list was chosen from a study the city commissioned last year that ranked the condition of every public street and road in the city limits, and prioritized improvements based on factors including current condition, amount of traffic, and probable repair cost.

The City paid about $30,000 for the study conducted and produced by Mendrop Engineering Resources.

This year’s improvement list has a projected cost of $583,889.17, including sales tax of 3.5 percent and a standard 10 percent contingency fee.

The cost of the repair to the chosen streets is $514,439.

The streets and their individual projected cost are:

• Oak Ridge Rd. – $118,060
• Mill Cross Rd. – $222,636
• Dunlap & Kyle Rd. – $43,200
• Lomax St. – $68,320
• Panola Ave. – $28,780
• Railroad St. – $13,193
• Pepsi Rd. – $20,250

Each of the streets and roads in the improvement plan have different lengths that are to be repaired. Some are the whole streets and some are portions. Pepsi Rd., is in the Industrial Park and work to that road is considered economic development and is a shared project with the Board of Supervisors and Panola Partnership.

The list was expected to be approved at Tuesday’s meeting of the city board. Public Works Director David Karr told the board earlier this month that waiting until the fall to undertake paving projects is risky because temperatures can drop suddenly and rain is always a factor.

Karr advised the board to consider adopting a paving schedule that would begin in April and continue through the summer. The City is always considering, in the proposed budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year, purchasing some pavement equipment that will allow the Street Dept. to take on some resealing and topping projects.

Aldermen seemed to agree on the list as proposed, but also heard dissent from Alderman Bobby Walton who reminded fellow board members he has been lobbying for work on several streets in his ward two years, and has been put off when the lists are produced.

Contacted this week, other aldermen agreed that Walton’s ward has not gotten enough attention in the last two paving years, saying they were willing to look for budget money to add a particularly bad portion of Vance Street, from Fields to Van Voris, to this year’s list.

A final vote will be taken before Oct. 1.