Madison County will proceed with the Reunion Parkway interchange, but other road projects will remain unfunded, Board of Supervisors President Tim Johnson said following the reversal of a 3-mill of a 6.33-mill tax levy Monday.
Before a board room packed with about 125 residents, the supervisors voted 3-1, with one member abstaining, to keep a 3.33-mill levy approved two weeks ago but to rescind an additional 3 mills intended to pay debt service for future road projects.
“We can continue to work on Reunion,” Johnson said. “I think we do have enough money.”
The county also has the money for extending Sowell Road, now a dead end, toward I-55 and for widening Gluckstadt Road to three lanes west of I-55, Johnson said. The county awarded a $5.4 million contract on Gluckstadt, and work should start on the year-long project in about another month.
But, there’s no extra money for other capital improvement projects, Johnson said. “This will stop future programs.”
Audience members questioned the amount the county has paid engineer Rudy Warnock, which turns out to be $6.9 million in the past 27 months.
“It would be unfair to think I put $6.9 million in my pocket,” Warnock said, adding he paid subcontractors for soil, survey and environmental jobs on county projects.
Warnock also said a number of road projects he designed had to be reworked a second time because of issues raised by the supervisors or residents in the project areas, which he said raised the amount he was paid.
“It appears a lot of money he made could have been saved if the Board of Supervisors had done their homework,” Madison resident Ron Smith said. “What we’re saying is we don’t want you paid two or three times for the same job.”
Clarion Ledger
9/16/8
Magnolia Tribune
