An attorney general’s opinion received this week reinforced a 54-year-old state mandate and placed the task of maintaining a disputed portion of Mississippi 465 in the hands of the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

Sheriff Martin Pace requested the opinion in June after conflict arose over calls coming from Ziegler and Laney Camp roads, two county-maintained roads on the lake side of the levee between the road and Lake Chotard.

Pace said the attorney general’s position, although advisory, was welcome.

&#8220It reflects our position all along,” Pace said. &#8220MDOT can’t just abandon it.”

The roadway hops atop the levee for about 2.4 miles, a portion once called Levee Road, and continues past Ziegler and Laney Camp to the Issaquena County line.

The task of maintaining it on a &#8220temporary” basis was given to MDOT in 1952 by the Legislature. However, no end date was provided.

&#8220All I can say is that I don’t agree with the opinion,” MDOT Central District Commissioner Dick Hall said this morning. &#8220But after 50 years, that seems to be far in excess of temporary.”

Hall gave no indication of any planned action on the part of MDOT to ask the legislature to address the issue.

&#8220I don’t know what we’ll do about it,” he said.

The road was kept up and is still part of Mississippi 465, but fell behind changing standards for roadways. MDOT commissioners passed a resolution in 2001 transferring its maintenance to the Mississippi Levee Commission and took it off the state highway list.

That agency’s officials and legal counsel have said only the gravel roads leading to the levees are maintained by MLC, not the state highway running atop them.

About eight months ago, &#8220end state maintenance” signs appeared alongside the road just yards from the levee road portion, causing Mississippi Highway Patrol officers to halt assistance to Warren County deputies when a wreck occurred there a short time afterward. State troopers have jurisdiction on state and federal highways. City streets and county roads are the turf of local law enforcement.

MDOT officials have said the degree of maintenance performed on a given road is a discretionary decision. Until Sheriff Pace’s inquiry, however, no formal opinion had ever been issued on the subject.

According to Attorney General Jim Hood’s letter, &#8220MDOT has the duty to maintain Highway 465 until such time as the Legislature removes it from the state highway system or enacts legislation which otherwise ends the responsibility of MDOT to maintain it.”

It also backs up Pace’s contention that MHP has a duty to respond to traffic accidents on state highways.

Mississippi 465 remains a state highway, and the highway patrol is required &#8220to enforce all of the traffic laws, rules and regulations of the State of Mississippi,” it said.

Officials with MHP did not immediately return calls for comment.