The Lafayette County Board of Supervisors took care of a couple of road project matters during Monday’s meeting, as well as amended a transit agreement with the city.

Recently, the county rejected bids on County Road 202 and changed it to a county project. One of the requirements is to stripe the roadway, which means quotes would have to be taken. Riverside Traffic System gave a bid of $16,039.20 and another bid of $22,822.50 from JC Cheek Contractors out of Kosciusko. County engineer Larry Britt recommended the lower bid and the board accepted the bid.

The final subdivision plat for Woodson Ridge subdivision on the recommendation of the planning commission hit a slight snag because the bond for the project had not come in as of Monday morning.

“The roads are complete. We’ve inspected the roads. What they are bonding is actually the final surface, but we won’t file a final plat until they turn the bond over to me,” Britt said.

Board president Jeff Busby said the bond must be in place before it can be accepted.

Busby made a motion and the board agreed to accept it when the bond is in place.

County road manager Jerry Haynie gave the board an update on road projects ongoing in the county.

“We’ve got a lot going on this time of year,” Haynie said. “We’re cutting back right-of-ways, trying to get all our bridges cut back and cleaned off because our state-aid inspection is coming up. We are replacing a lot of our signs and also a lot of culverts. We’ve got a lot of state-aid paving projects going on. We thank the Lord for the weather we’ve got and able to get something done.”

Supervisor Mike Pickens asked if the road crews were caught up on their striping projects.

“They’ve striped all the ones we’ve had under the striping project,” said Britt. “Now we’ve gotten purchase orders for a couple of roads outside of that.”

Pickens said County Road 431 needs to be taken care of.

“We’ve got to get that shoulder material on there,” Pickens said. “It’s becoming a hazard because it’s a pretty good drop off.”

Haynie said it’s difficult finding a shoulder machine to do the work, but said he thinks he’s got it worked out to rent or lease a machine from another county.

The board also accepted a request to extend County Road 531 another 480-feet and add it to the county road register.

Supervisor Chad McLarty said the section of road is in Harmontown off County Road 508 near the fire station. McLarty said all that is required is to put gravel on the road and build the road-bed back up and move the ditch over a little bit.

During a previous meeting, a part-time transit driver requested to go to full-time status rather than hiring another driver to replace a part-time driver who had left. The question was raised about benefits.

Under the amended agreement, the transit driver’s will be city employees that the county pays for and will be reimbursed.

“They will be under the city benefit program,” county attorney David O’Donnell said.

Dr. Fowlkes hired

Following executive session, the board agreed to hire Dr. Tom Fowlkes as the medical director for the detention center at an annual salary of $25,000 to work 20 hours per week and also hired Mary Sellers as the registered nurse of the detention center with an annual salary of $30,000 for 30 hours per week.

McLarty was the lone no vote on both hirings.

In other matters related to the sheriff’s department and the detention center, David Wilson and L.J. McNease were transferred from the detention center to deputies of the sheriff’s department, while Joe Quarles was hired as a full-time jailor.

Also, Keith Davis was transferred from METRO Narcotics to the sheriff’s department as a deputy.