The Pearl River County Board of Supervisors met Wednesday morning to tackle a series of routine matters before diving into more controversial issues, including the continuing dispute concerning Ridge Road.
Board President Sandy Kane Smith asked Sheriff David Allison to set some kind of device to deter speeding in school areas over the next few weeks in preparation for the new school year.
Smith said he has received numerous complaints of speeding in school areas and requested a radar sign be erected in those areas that alerts drivers to the speed they are driving and tells them to slow down.
County Road Manager Charlie Schielder said he would investigate how much it would cost to purchase or rent those machines.
The Board also discussed an ongoing problem of Pearl River County residents registering their vehicles in Louisiana.
Allison said state law requires vehicles that reside three or more consecutive nights in Mississippi to be registered in the state.
When the department is notified a vehicle is improperly registered, the sheriff’s department can investigate the matter and cite the vehicle owner for the violation.
Allison said residents who drive company cars registered in other states are subject to an exception.
Smith said it’s going to take a community effort to fix these problems, including having residents call the sheriff’s department to report improperly registered vehicles.
The Board also discussed the ongoing issue of uninsured vehicles. A representative of the Pearl River County Tax Assessor’s office said the state will soon mandate that car owners have proof of insurance in order to purchase or renew a car tag.
In other news, the Board discussed the decision made earlier this week by the Hancock County Board of Supervisors regarding Ridge Road. The Board took no action on the matter and maintained their stance that the Pearl River County section of the road is private because it was left off the county map since the early 2000s. However, the Board also discussed opening the road and adopting it into the county road list as a way to reduce the cost of the proposed Ridge Road realignment project.
“Why are we going to build a new road through the woods, when we can just open up the gates and do this?” Board Vice President Hudson Holliday said.
County Engineer Les Dungan said the new road would be a mile and a half shorter and could actually be less costly than repaving the old road. By the end of discussion, Board Attorney Joe Montgomery warned the Board that any more involvement in the Ridge Road dispute would be costly for the county and should be settled privately.
In a separate matter, District IV Supervisor Farron Moeller discussed a reported junkyard on Ceasar Road.
Moeller said a very temporary fence has been constructed. Yet, he said the fence “looks about as bad as the junkyard did.”
Moeller said the fence will not be the final product and the county will continue to work with the property owner to construct a more permanent fence or the vehicles will have to be removed.
More information will be published in Friday’s Item.