County council debates road expenditures

Marion Country Administrator Tim Harper found himself in opposition to some county council members as he stated a request from the Marion County Transportation Committee for more funding.

“They can only spend the money that they have in hand,” Harper said. “In years past, they could fund projects a year in advance.”

Harper said that due to a limited amount of funding from the state gas tax, the committee needs an infusion of funds to maintain roads in the county.

The committee works independently from the County Council as a body that decides how money will be allocated in the repairing, resurfacing and paving of roads.

Harper recommended that the new funds be used for economic development in the form of construction as well as resurfacing.

He went on to stress the rocking or distributing of rocks over dirt roads as a means to make them smoother, addressing a portion of the over 700 miles of dirt roads in Marion County.

A large sum of the money being requested by the committee would be allocated to the distribution of rocks over the county’s roads.

Council members Milton Troy II and Thomas Shaw suggested that the committee suffers from a misguided vision in its allocation of funds.

“It seemed like I (and my concerns) were pushed to the backburner,” Council member Shaw said, referencing an instance in which he appeared before the committee. “It made me feel kind of bad,” he said.

Shaw went on to mention a number of roads with sparse inhabitants that had recently had rocks laid over them.

Council Vice Chairperson Elista Smith suggested that the Council postpone the vote on the Transportation Committee’s funding in lieu of the council needing more time to get better informed on the matter.

“I don’t want to vote on this tonight,” Smith said. “I hope we can think about this and not vote on it tonight,” she added.

Later, Council member Troy voiced more concerns in the area of the committee.

“I believe, and I may be wrong, but the purpose that the county Transportation Committee is appointed to begin with, is to take the politics out of this whole program,” Troy said.

He went on to emphasize his opinion that the committee no longer functioned independently from politics.

“Once (we) got a new committee with new members, they decided that they would turn (the committee) back over to the county,” Troy said. “If you look at the areas where the rocks were going, they were not in minority communities,” he said.

Council Member Allen Floyd said that a reexamination of the Transportation Committee may be needed, but to reconstitute the overall committee should not be allowed.

“There is no doubt in my mind, that the committee had decided that they are doing to do what they are supposed to do with the power they are given,” Floyd said. “We don’t have the authority to go back and tell them what to do,” he said.

Council will explore the subject further and a vote is expected during the Aug. 11 meeting at 9a.m.