An untimely scoff from an observer at Monday’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors raised the ire of the elected officials, and the Road Manager, over the sensitive topic of the road conditions in Panola County.

Road Manager Bruce Cook had just reported, with disgust, that contractors at both the Macedonia and Crouch Road projects had performed less than desired work leaving both sections in poor condition with winter weather approaching fast.

It was then the audience member made an audible huff prompting Cook to challenge him to take the floor with his complaints. The man, a frequent visitor at board meetings, told the board he simply believes the condition of county roads are a “disgrace” and worse than those in adjoining counties.

Supervisors Cole Flint, Chad Weaver, and Fred Butts each offered assessments of the roads, defending Cook and the county’s road employees.

Flint started with an agreement that roads are indeed bad, but said the return from a freshly paved road is almost nothing compared to the potential of the same funds invested in economic development projects.

“Right now we’re working on Macedonia Road, that’s 1.4 million for one mile of road,” Flint said. “You leave there and drive down Old Panola in the bottom, that’s another million dollars we are spending for a mile of road. We only have a three or four million dollar budget for roads each year, so how far is that getting us?”

“We can take that same million dollars and put it into something that will attract people to Panola County and they will build houses and start businesses. Then we can get tax dollars from more people instead of just taking from you. That’s all we are trying to do, put the money somewhere that can make a return on investment.”

Other county problems, Flint said, are more pressing.

“We have a failing hospital, a jail that needs expanding, and kids robbing us blind. You want to complain about a pothole? Drive around the damn thing,” Flint said.

Butts, the only supervisor who worked in the Road Department and has operated the heavy equipment on county roads, said the current Road Manager and employees shouldn’t be blamed for poor roads, saying that almost every road in the county has some sort of structural problem.

“The roads we are driving on were built in a hurry and that’s the problem,” Butts said. “They were never covered the right way and never resealed every three to five years like you are supposed to do. After the bad ice storm last year, all that showed up. So it’s going to take us some time to make these roads right.”

Weaver noted that he drives roads in adjoining counties often and the idea that roads here are vastly inferior is false. “Every county around us has problems with their roads and they have people complaining there, too.”

“If we decided that we wanted the best roads we could raise everybody’s taxes six or seven thousand dollars a year and we would have the best roads in North Mississippi, but that’s the only way it’s going to happen,” he said.

“We are like anyone else, we don’t like getting our vehicles beat all to hell, but I also do have enough common sense to know that when I ride down a bad road, and turn around to come back, to slow down because it’s still a bad road.”