[4/17/03]Warren County will ask the federal government for $144,000 in matching funds to help repair five roads damaged by the torrential rain on April 6.

The county will also seek aid from the Mississippi Department of Transportation to replace two bridges damaged by the same storm.

In a special meeting Wednesday, supervisors met with Charles Curtis of the local Natural Resource Conservation Service and approved the applications for grants from the NRCS to make repairs on Possum Hollow Road, Bell Bottom Road, Roy Young Road, Ridgelawn Drive and Dana Road.

Curtis said the county will have to match the NRCS funds with 15 percent local money because the county is doing the planning, specifications and providing all rights of way.

The federal and county shares for each of the road repairs is:

Possum Hollow, $48,750 federal and $16,250 local.

Bell Bottom, $ 37,500 federal and $12,500 local.

Roy Young, $30,000 federal and $10,000 local.

Ridgelawn Drive, $36,000 federal and $12,000 local.

Dana Road, $18,759 federal and $6,250 local.

John McKee, county engineer, received declarations of emergency on two bridge replacement projects, on Freetown and Possum Hollow Roads so MDOT will expedite the county’s application for funds to replace the bridges.

“We’ve gone back and looked for extra funds we could put on these other projects,” McKee said. “We found one of our projects, the Adams Street bridge, is to the point we realized we’ve got enough money in there that we could take some out and still do the project.”

He then asked the board to reduce the funding for the Adams Street bridge project from $350,000 to $200,000 and put the $150,000 toward the funding for the replacement of a bridge on Freetown Road. The estimate of the total cost of the project is $276,125.

McKee then asked for and received a declaration of the Freetown and Possum Hollow Roads bridge projects as emergencies so MDOT will expedite the approval process.

In other business, the board:

Heard a report from L.W. Callaway III, director of the Warren County Emergency Management Office, that Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and Federal Emergency Management Agency were in town Friday, Monday and Tuesday doing preliminary damage assessments. Those assessments will be forwarded to Gov. Ronnie Musgrove for transmitting to FEMA as part of the request for a presidential declaration of disaster.

“I will contact the board of supervisors as soon as we here anything,” Callaway said.

Approved a joint declaration of a local emergency that had already been passed and approved by the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Vicksburg.

Took under advisement a proposal by District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon to have the NRCS evaluation team look at a mud slide on private property near Marcus and Rogers Streets.

Adjourned until 9 a.m. Monday.