Supes approve over $1 million in road construction contracts

On Thursday, January 5, the Clay County Board of Supervisors hosted its second regular meeting of the month. During that meeting, the board was presented with contracts for necessary road repairs throughout the county by District 2 Supervisor Luke Lummus. These contracts represented $1,100,000 worth of urgent road repairs throughout Clay County.

“I wanted to ask the board to approve the work on our roads,” said Lummus. “I've got my quotes… Yesterday, my contractor called me and said we were going to put it off, and I said that we can't. We need to get this done now.”

The road work proposed to the Board of Supervisors included work on Pinkerton Road, Clisby Road, Tibbee Road, Bennett Road, Cuevas Road, Haywood Road, Campground Road, Greenfield Road, Mayfield Road, and Community Center Road. These roads were selected as those in the most urgent need of repair within the county.

“At this time, I have all my contracts in place and my paperwork done,” said Lummus. “That way, when we have appropriate temperatures, he can move forward without hesitation. So I want to make a motion to accept my contracts.”

Lummus's motion was seconded by Shelton Deanes of District 4. All board members voted in favor of the contracts, allowing the road work to move forward. Lummus reacted to this as the fulfillment of a promise to his constituents.

“This is no rhetoric. This is fact,” said Lummus. “It's $1,100,000 dollars worth of road work.”

Supervisor Lummus was also concerned about ensuring that the roads are protected in the future, and will not result in more costs for the county. He and the other members of the Board of Supervisors discussed recommendations from the County Engineer on how to protect the roads with business bonds. But Lummus did express his gratitude to those who have made it possible to address the immediate problems first.

“Thank God for our legislators,” said Lummus. “They've helped us with this. There's no way that we would have access to this kind of money without it going back on the taxpayers without them. This has never happened before and may never happen again. All of the supervisors have been happy to take advantage of it. We're working on our worst roads first and then moving forward.”

Also, during the January 5 meeting, the Clay

County Board of Supervisors also approved the use of the Bank of Commerce as the primary depository for Clay County, after comparing bids between different local banks.

Bank of Commerce provided two different interest rate options to the city that were both higher than their competitors, with fewer fees that will apply to the city. The board approved the Bank of Commerce as the primary depository of the county for the next four years, though they also approved the use of Renasant Bank, Cadence Bank, and BankFirst as other county depositories.

Before the end of the meeting, the Clay County Board of Supervisors decided to convene again next week for a special meeting to discuss the congressional packet that will be brought to Washington D.C. in February. This Washington D.C. trip, initially intended for Sheriff Eddie Scott and Stephen Young to attend the National Sheriffs Conference, will also include a representative from the Clay County Board of Supervisors to help secure funding for more county projects in the future.

“We need to speak with him as a group as soon as possible, so we can know what to give Mr. Lummus to take out there and fight for,” said Board President Lynn Horton.