Although Petal Mayor Tony Ducker had hoped to begin work by this summer on the Matthews Branch pedestrian/bike path, that project may instead get its start late this year or early next year.
Ducker said paperwork and red tape on the measure is taking a little longer than expected, and officials also are contemplating weather matters that may factor into the project.
“I wouldn’t say it’s been postponed; we are pushing papers around now, so we’re in that stage, and I was probably optimistic that we could put a shovel in the ground in the middle of this year,” he said. “The issue is, is once all the paperwork is done and all the land acquisition takes place, it’s going to be kind of in the winter.
“So it’ll really be determined then, at that point, if you want to proceed with that weather or do you want to wait until the weather is a little warmer, which makes it a little more ideal to do a project of this nature.”
The project, which will entail a path that runs along Matthews Branch from Southern Bowling Lanes on South Main Street to Petal City Park near the Petal Family Branch YMCA, is made possible by an $862,560 grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation that was approved in 2021. That plan was approved after a project that would have seen a new sidewalk from West 10th Avenue and South Main Street down Morris Avenue, near Petal Middle School, was scrapped in favor of the Matthews Branch project.
“Basically, we’re going through the hoops (on the Matthews Branch path); there’s a ton of those,” Ducker said. “And obviously, going through the land acquisition, there’s going to be a few hiccups there, so we’ll have to work through that process.
“This seemed a preferable route over the original route; we are dealing with less property owners, and this should be less invasive and less detrimental to our business community as well.”
City officials are required to put the project out to bid by the end of this year through MDOT.
“So we’ve got to have all our ducks in a row, basically,” Ducker said. “We’ve got to have them give us the green light to have it put out to bid.
“There’s a chance we could put a shovel in the ground at the back end of this year; that’s what I’m hoping for, anyway.”
Ducker said the path will be a huge boon to the city, especially as it will open up the interior of the city to pedestrians looking to travel through downtown.
“(They’ll) be able to access the river park and access the new (East Hardy Street) bridge, the Longleaf Trace,” he said. “It just has a lot of possibilities of what this could be down there within the next five years or so.
“And obviously, it will give our police department and first responders access to that area more readily, so I think that can be a really neat part of the project as well. You’ve got people walking up and down that area now as is, and we don’t really have as much access from a city standpoint to that area, so this will open up that area to have our personnel get down there and maintain the area and make it look nicer as well.”
