A 1.4-mile section of China Grove Road from Nine Mile Cut Off Road to Mississippi 27 will be rebuilt.

“Finally,” China Grove resident Brenda Turner said Wednesday after being told that Warren County has received a $598,888 federal Community Development Block Grant through the Mississippi Development Authority.

“We’ve got potholes galore,” Turner said. “They (the county) come and fill them, and before they fill them, we’ve got more potholes.”

Warren County Board of Supervisors President Bill Lauderdale announced the grant Wednesday, explaining that it is for low- to moderate-income areas. The road is in District 5 Supervisor Richard George’s district.

The grant is composed of $299,444 in federal funds and a 50 percent county match of $299,444. Lauderdale said the county’s share will pay for the actual construction, while federal funds will cover project engineering, administration fees and possible cost overruns.

He said preliminary estimates put the project’s cost at $301,600, not including the engineering.

Lauderdale said the project will involve repairing and leveling the roadbed and resurfacing the road with asphalt.

He said money for the county’s match came from the county’s gaming revenue, adding, “That’s where all our paving money comes from.”

Turner, who lives at 1065B China Grove, said part of the work has been done.

“They did half the road, but they didn’t do the other half,” she said.

The two-lane road from Nine Mile Cut Off Road north to Gibson Road, China Grove Road is smooth, “but below Nine Mile Cutoff, there’s plenty of potholes,” Turner said.

Lauderdale and Warren County administrator John Smith said bids for the project would be let in early 2013.

“That will be part of our spring paving program,” Smith said, adding the board plans to bid China Grove Road and several other county road projects together to get a better price on the work. He said the money for China Grove is in the fiscal 2013 budget and already dedicated for the project.

Smith said the idea to pave China Grove was discussed in the spring when Olie Elfer with Jimmy Gouras Urban Planning Consultants told the supervisors grant money might be available for a project in a low- to middle-income area in the county. China Grove, Smith said, fit the bill.

“I’m glad we’re able to fix it,” Lauderdale said.

So are Tameka and Jed Knight, Turner’s neighbors at 1065A China Grove.

“I think this spot is the worst part of the road as far as the rest of the road,” Tameka Knight said, pointing to about a 6-foot section of the road near their home that is covered with small open potholes and old and newly repaired holes.

“A lady came to our house in January with a petition to get the road fixed,” she said.

“This whole road is bad,” Jed Knight said. “My mother lives down the road, and that section’s real bad. I’ve lived on this road for 20 years and they’ve done nothing to fix it.”