The Sardis Courthouse parking lot will get new parking lot stripes by a 3-2 vote of the Panola County Board of Supervisors.

All five supervisors agreed the parking lot is long overdue for a facelift, the deadlock occurred when they couldn’t decide on how the work should be done.

Supervisors Earl Burdette and Chad Weaver were in favor of having Riley Paving complete the project for a quoted price of $1,800, while John Thomas and James Birge wanted to use the jail inmate for the work.

Burdette has been pushing the board to have the poorly striped parking lot repainted for several months. Finally, he got the quote himself and made the suggestion to fellow supervisors Monday.

“The Sardis Courthouse gets ignored most of the time, but it looks terrible in the parking lot and we can fix this without spending a fortune,” Burdette said. “This is a good price and we need this done professionally.”

Weaver agreed, saying he believed with national shortages the county would likely have trouble finding parking lot-grade paint. “If you aren’t in that business, you probably can’t get it.”

Thomas and Birge said they preferred to get the paint when available and have the inmates do the work.

“It’s free labor and they are just sitting around anyway,” Thomas said. “Let them get some two by fours and paint the new lines.”

Board president Cole Flint was called on to break the tie. He agreed the county could save money using inmate labor and said he would vote with the nays if the paint needed could be found in county inventory. Unless the paint was on hand, Flint said, he preferred to use the professional service.

Road Manager Bruce Cook, after making a quick phone call to the shop, reported the county has one drum of parking lot paint but it is several years old.

Hearing that, Flint voted with Burdette and Weaver.

And with that, new striping for the Sardis Courthouse is now forthcoming, and weather permitting, will be ready for public use in short order.