New road at port will relieve truck congestion

A new road will hopefully alleviate some of the traffic congestion issues at the Lowndes County Port.

The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors agreed to build a road bed and clean out ditches off of Industrial Park Access Road during its Thursday morning meeting. LSI, which handles operations at the port, will then build a gravel road on that foundation.

Will Sanders

As it stands now, Port Access Road is the only way in and out, Port Director Will Sanders said. He estimated that 150 trucks come in daily, and during the morning it’s not unusual for 60 heavily laden trucks to be stacked up, waiting their turn.

This creates a safety issue, and it’s also not great for the roads, Road Manager Mike Aldridge said.

“All that constant starting and stopping damages the roads,” Aldridge said.

Aldridge said he didn’t think it would take long.

“It’s real sandy soil over there,” Aldridge said. “One of the days when it’s raining and we can’t do something on the roads we’ll go over there and work. It sounds like a big project, but it’s not. We anticipate it being a pretty short project.”

The supervisors unanimously approved the construction.

Getting ahead of the game

The supervisors, the Golden Triangle Development LINK and the Lowndes County Industrial Development Authority are asking the state legislature to tweak the way debt associated with economic development impacts the county’s debt limit.

The county, in tandem with the LCIDA, is trying to set up a fifth megasite. Located west of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, the so-called “Cinco” site would acquire 1,500 more acres north of Highway 82 to draw industrial prospects.

A megasite is a large swath of land, usually more than 1,000 acres, dedicated to industrial developments for several companies to build and operate on. The Golden Triangle already has four megasites, which are home to Steel Dynamics, Aluminum Dynamics and Paccar in Lowndes County and Yokohama Tire in Clay County.

LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins and attorney Chris Pace asked the supervisors to pass a resolution supporting a change to the law.

Joe Max Higgins

“This is all surrounding Cinco, and the anticipation of acquiring it and giving the county some (financial) flexibility,” Higgins said.

Debt associated with economic development site preparation would not count against the county’s debt limit, Pace said.

State law limits debt incurred by county governments to 15% of that county’s assessed value. Lowndes County’s total assessed value is more than $1 billion, making its debt limit roughly $150 million.

According to figures provided by Chief Financial Officer Lloyd Price, the county currently has about $40.6 million in General Obligation bond debt, and the LCIDA has about $18 million in debt.

“As part of the legislation to approve the incentive packages for these economic development projects, the legislature has excluded debt issued for public infrastructure, land acquisition and land development from the typical debt limits,” Pace said.

At some point the incremental taxes from industries sited on these sites would be used to repay any debt issued by the county, Pace explained.

The proposed legislation will apply specifically to the Cinco megasite, Pace said.

Hairston said the move is to remove negative consequences — in this case, running up against the debt cap — from a local government undertaking a project that will better the state as a whole.

Trip Hairston

“The state does a good job, especially over the last term, in recruiting industry,” Hairston said. “Typically they want participation from local governments. If you’re going to ask local government to participate in incentives, there doesn’t need to be a detriment in the way of that.”

Due diligence work on Cinco is still underway, Hairston said, including “scoping” work to plan out how to bring power and other infrastructure to the site.

“We’re trying to do as much on the front end as we can to decrease the timeline for getting power in there,” Hairston said.

Voting precincts change

Circuit Clerk Teresa Barksdale asked the board to move two voting precincts.

She asked that the Hunt precinct, which has been at Stephen Chapel M.B. Church, move to Sim Scott Community Center.

The second is the Rural Hill precinct, which will move from the community center to the Rural Hill Volunteer Fire Station, which is “probably 100 feet away.”

The supervisors unanimously approved the relocation, with the Sim Scott box contingent on Columbus City Council’s approval for the Sim Scott box, as the city owns that community center.

Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.

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