Work to resurface such Warren County roads as Logue Circle, Culkin Road and Blossom Lane, areas rated in the poorest condition in the latest estimate, could resume by year’s end despite another year of falling gaming tax revenue.

Tapped nearly annually as supervisors’ usual funding source for routine paving projects, the fund has run short more than as long as the recession has affected the casino industry. Through May, revenues from Vicksburg’s five casinos to the county were down more than 6 percent. That shortfall and a shrinking pool of state money to counties for paving in the past four years still won’t deter at least some paving by winter, when asphalt operators shut down temporarily.

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“We’ve gotta have some roads done and ready to roll by October,” Board President Richard George said, rebutting claims, however firm, that holding off paving small sections of roadway for another year would save the county money. “The roads are going to get away from us.”

Supervisors agreed informally Monday to have bids received and opened by Sept. 1, six days before the board is expected to approve a final rendition of the county’s 2010-11 operating budget.

Ratings for parts of 346 roads have been completed by ABMB Engineers Inc., the first such prioritized list since the most recent paving project wrapped up in 2007. Roads are graded on a 100-point scale using average daily traffic load and the degree of buckling or cracking since the last report as the main criteria. Topping the list that year and this year is a quarter-mile segment of Logue Circle, located off the west side of Culkin Road near Vicksburg National Military Park property. Parts of Tiffintown, Bell Bottom, Culkin and Bovina Cutoff roads round out the top five.

The top 134 road segments graded 80 or worse on the 2007 report, a strategy employed by county engineers to start the next project with the poorest roads. The list usually accompanies the four-year plan of road and bridge projects — itself finalized by engineers and OK’d by supervisors in February. Conditions worsened fastest in the past three years along three areas:

• A .6-mile section of Cattlin Road, between Floweree Road and the end of county maintenance, up to 10th-worst from 210th in 2007.

• A .9-mile section of Bell Bottom Road, off Mississippi 3, up to third-worse from 57th in 2007.

• All of Cottonwood Place, in Oak Park subdivision. A 230-foot section moved to eighth place from 54th three years ago.

Longest — and most expensive — of the top 50 most in need of a new surface is a 6.6-mile stretch of Fisher Ferry Road from Jeff Davis Road to the Big Black River, pegged at nearly $1.9 million. The item is graded a 55, good for 40th worst. Bovina Cutoff Road between Warriors Trail and Silver Creek is the longest and, possibly, the costliest among the top five in the poorest condition, with a 43 rating and a $722,790 potential price tag.

Maintenance on many major Warren County thoroughfares such as Fisher Ferry and Mississippi 27 are financed by Mississippi Department of Transportation’s Office of State Aid Road Construction through a size- and population-based percentage. The local cut of State Aid money has dwindled more than 30 percent in four years. Lesser-traveled subdivision streets have been improved strictly via the gaming fund by nearly every county administration since Vicksburg’s four original casinos were built in 1993 and 1994.

Shares of revenue- and population-based taxes paid by casinos to Warren County have reached $1.8 million through May and are on pace to hit $2.7 million for this fiscal year, County Administrator John Smith said. The projection is off this year’s estimate by about $200,000.

Since the budget year began, supervisors have signed off on interfund loans, cut support for nonprofit agencies and pushed for reforms in the local judicial system to build cash reserves and enter next year with a balanced budget. Moving money around various funds to pay for annual road paving hasn’t gained much traction, as the current board continues to preserve gaming as the lone source to pay for routine road paving.

“I like the idea of keeping it separate,” District 1 Supervisor David McDonald said.