Pearl River County’s Board of Supervisors approved a motion to apply for grant funding from the emergency road and bridge repair fund.

Les Dungan with Dungan Engineering made the request to the Board to submit three applications for ERBR funding. He said there is about $100 million worth of state money that the Legislature approved for the program, and he has already formed a list of local projects that might qualify.

If the grants are approved, he said he might be able to pay for some current projects, which will free up county funds for other projects that would not qualify.

In other business, Dungan also updated the Board on phase two of the county’s paving project. Currently about 10 miles of county roads are ready for paving, and county crews are in the process of getting another 3.6 miles ready for paving as well.

The total goal is to pave about 68 miles of county roads in this phase of the project.

He said that the project is about a third of the way through the timeline, but a bit behind schedule since to be on target would mean about 23 miles of road would be ready for paving by this point.

Road Department Manager Charlie Schielder said he expects another five miles to be ready for paving within the next week.

Chancery Court Clerk Melinda Bowman also addressed the Board to update its members on how much money she has turned over to the county’s general fund. The most recent amount totaled $328,411. She said that since she took office in 2016, her office has turned over a total of $1.3 million back to the county.

Those funds came from fees collected by her office. After the fees pay her salary and the payroll for her office staff, she is bound by state law to turn over any excess funds to the county, Bowman said.