The Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors meeting ended contentiously Monday night, with District 1 Supervisor John Montgomery vehemently opposing the board’s vote to divide road bond funds based on road miles, as opposed to property assessment value.
The Board voted 3-2, with Montgomery and District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard voting against.
“Any scenario that gives District 1 less than 20 percent is ridiculous, going by the assessment value,” Montgomery said. “The assessed value of District 1 is the same as Districts 2 and 5 combined… We used to go by the assessed value years ago. That’s 26 percent.”
Dividing the $10 million in available funds by road miles would give 19 percent to District 1, while dividing by assessment value would give 26 percent to District 1. District 1 has an assessment value of $99,871,694, with 102.38 road miles.
The County has applied for $14.5 million of bond funds total, with a bond of around $4.5 million going to the Blackjack Road project in conjunction with Mississippi State University, along with a $10 million bond available for other projects.
“I’m outraged that this is happening, period, and I want this to be heard,” Montgomery said. "I knew all along, before this formula ever got devised, what we would be looking at. Here we are tonight, guys. Here we are.”
In an interview following the meeting, Board President and District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer sad he felt the board dividing money that wasn’t yet in the county’s hands was a contributing factor to the tense discussion.
"I’m satisfied that what we did was in the best interest of the county, and right now, everything is still hinging on the public hearing," Trainer said.
Trainer said that while he felt road mileage was the best way to divide the funds, the funds could be re-divided once they were in the county’s hands. He added that if a protest or objection came up during the public hearing scheduled for mid-February, the funds might not even materialize.
“Let’s get the money first,” Trainer said. We’ll work out the color of the carpet later, but some people want to know the color of the carpet before the building is built, and if you do that, then every now and then, you’ll have some situations like you all witnessed tonight.”