[06/05/01] Roads at the Ceres Research and Industrial Interplex may be getting a $600,000 upgrade if a Community Development Block Grant is approved this fall as expected.

The Warren County Board of Supervisors approved a request from the Warren County Port Commission to apply for the $500,000 grant to do road work at the industrial park, now nearly 15 years old.

“It’s going to be an upgrade,” said Jimmy Heidel, executive director of the commission. “The upgrades will be on the four-lane entrance and the loop around the water tank.”

The park, developed by the commission on former farmland in Flowers, is home to Tyson Foods, Simpson Dura-Vent and Union Corrugated and will soon be the location of a new Mississippi National Guard facility.

Heidel said because of the heavy truck traffic in the area, the roads also need to be thickened to accommodate the businesses located there.

“There’s a lot of heavy hauling, so there are weak spots in the road,” he said.

The Port Commission will be responsible for putting in $100,000 if the grant is approved.

A public meeting will be held June 27 at 10:30 a.m. to discuss the application process and the work to be done.

Heidel said if there are no objections at the meeting, the request will go on to CDBG who will have around a month-and-a-half to review it and will then make a site visit. He said a decision from CDBG should be known by late September or early October.

In other business, the county:

Reimbursed the City of Vicksburg $6,156 in a grant program to operate a waste tire facility for citizens.

Approved an application to secure $700,000 to upgrade Kings Point Ferry. Federal funds will pay for 80 percent of the project with the county kicking in $140,000. Upgrades are planned for the ferry as well as approaches.

Approved a service agreement in the amount of $56,457.60 with Motorola for new radios and a new tower site.

Accepted the final contract with Central Mississippi Planning and Development District to help redraw district voting lines. The cost for CMP&D services will not exceed $12,000, board attorney Randy Sherard said.

The board will meet again at 9 a.m. on June 18. A public meeting will follow at 10 a.m. to address the fiscal limits of the Culkin Fire District.