An $862,560 grant received last year by the City of Petal from the Mississippi Department of Transportation that would have seen a new sidewalk from West 10th Avenue and South Main Street down Morris Avenue near Petal Middle School will now go toward a different route.
On Feb. 1, the Petal Board of Aldermen voted 4-3 to accept an engineering agreement with Shows, Dearman & Waits that will explore a path that instead runs along Matthews Branch, from Southern Bowling Lanes on South Main Street to Petal City Park near the Petal Family Branch YMCA. Mayor Tony Ducker said the original plan had technically already been taken off the drawing board based on information provided by city engineer John Weeks, which saw the project had a high potential of cost overruns and deadline issues.
“One of the things … that I didn’t like (about the original plan) was that it wasn’t going to be business-friendly,” Ducker said. “It would have possibly put at least one business out of business, and shut businesses down during the construction phase.
“When you get around Ace (Hardware), up in that area, those folks don’t have a lot of land to give; a couple of them actually use that for parking. (Also), we already have some sidewalks on the other side – that we need to do some work on, admittedly – but this actually opens up an entire different part of town.”
Ward 1 Alderman Gerald Steele, Ward 3 Alderman Blake Nobles and Ward 5 Alderman Drew Brickson voted against the measure, mainly because they wanted more time to review the project and have discussions with the public.
“I wasn’t against the vote; I was for the Matthews Branch project,” Nobles said. “But I understood the other aldermen’s desire for more communication, and the community’s desire for more communication.
“I do think that the Matthews Branch project is probably best for the amount of money we’re spending, and what all we can get out of it, and what all we can do in the future. But if that’s not conveyed to everybody very well, I was fine with continuing the conversation.”
Petal resident Lisa Foster spoke up at the meeting, saying almost no one was made aware of the new plan.
“(It’s wrong) telling us, the taxpayers, that you’re spending $800,000 on something that is sorely needed in our community – and will put the city closer to (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance – and that has been asked for over and over for years, only to completely flip the script to a recreational pathway that nobody knows about,” Foster told the board. “This is completely unacceptable.
“I’ve heard that there are eminent domain issues, as well as issues on the business side, and to be honest, that sounds like excuses to me. I would like more answers, and I would like the community to be able to give more input.”
Ducker said the Matthews Branch route will give officials fewer issues with land and property owners, as there is no land in that area that is buildable.
“We’re not going in and taking land that’s currently being used by anyone,” he said. “We actually run our sewer down Matthews Branch as it is, and we maintain that area by cutting the grass so we can have access to our sewer infrastructure through there.”
The amount of the MDOT grant will not change, only the route.
“(MDOT) is just allowing us to change (the path),” Ducker said. “With these issues that I brought to them via our engineer, knowing we might have issues and time delays (with the original route), that was a concern for them as well.
“So they worked with us so we could get an alternate route. MDOT just said, ‘we understand what you’re saying to us; we agree, and it’s acceptable for y’all to try to go up Matthews Branch.’”
As far as limiting discussion on the original plan, Ducker said there wasn’t much talk about that plan either, as it was presented to the board as-is. The mayor said at the time, the board was focused on getting the funds for the project.
“We should have taken a harder look at it,” he said. “If MDOT wouldn’t have allowed us to do (Matthews Branch), we would have looked harder at making the other route work.
“We weren’t interested in turning the money back over to MDOT; we’re very appreciative of them considering us, and Commissioner (Tom) King has a lot to do with that. I think that was one of the contentions, is that we all sat around and had these long, drawn-out discussions, and we really didn’t. We talked about the new route more than we talked about the old route.”
If all goes according to plan, work on the new route will begin in approximately a year.
