By Rupert Howell

Panola County supervisors agreed on a new culvert application process that requires all culvert installations to be permitted through the Land Development Office following a special meeting of supervisors Tuesday, February 21.

Also the county will only provide culverts to municipalities that let their portion of the road tax come to the county.

Several municipalities have previously requested their share of the road tax in lieu of county assistance on some maintenance projects such as providing culverts.

According to the new ordinance, Panola County will furnish a culvert and gravel to allow ingress and egress to the county road installed only on county right-of-way.

All culvert installations will require a permit from the Land Development Office with the county providing one culvert and maintenance per E911 address.

Additional culverts are permitted but must be furnished by the citizen, meet county specifications and be installed by the county’s road department.

The process includes having a valid E-911 address, determination of size of culvert and scope of work, (any culvert over 36 inches requires board approval), installation by road department, and a Land Development Office inspection.

The board order included noting that the Land Development Office will keep records of installation and pictures and maintenance of existing culverts are responsibility of the road department.
District 5 Supervisor Cole Flint said he has “been fighting this thing for three months.”

Still in his first few months as a supervisor, Flint said the current culvert policy was “too loose … with little or no documentation and open to abuse.”

From the top of his head he cited approximate figures of $276,000 last year for culverts, $265,000 the year before. The year previous the total culvert bill was approximately $180,000 and Flint said, “That’s almost $100,000 more.”

He said that he received explanations concerning the increase including that Federal Emergency Management Agency, (FEMA) money was used following some flooding to replace culverts but claimed that some of the culverts weren’t put where flooding occurred.

Following the meeting when the order was adopted County Road Manager Lygunnah Bean said the new requirements will, “Put transparency, accountability and trust back into the culvert policy.”