Jackson Free Press

To get the ball rolling on construction of a proposed roadway, the Hinds County Board of Supervisors will ask the Legislature for financial support.

This week, during a meeting at the Hinds County courthouse in Raymond, the supervisors voted down a resolution from District 3 Supervisor Peggy Calhoun to ask state lawmakers for $50 million to initiate construction of the project. When the resolution failed, Calhoun amended her request to seek funding with the amount requested left blank; the board approved that measure.

Calhoun said the project is needed to relieve traffic congestion and create jobs.

"We need all the economic-development projects we can get," she told the Jackson Free Press, adding that sales and property tax bases in Hinds County and municipalities like Jackson have dwindled as a result of "people flight" to Rankin and Madison Counties. "We can not sit here and watch the tax base erode."

According to plans, the 18-mile corridor would consist of a multi-lane road, sidewalks and bike paths between Byram at Interstate 55 South extending northwest to the Norrell Road Interchange at Interstate 20 in Clinton.

In March 2011, supervisors commissioned Jackson-based engineering firm Neel-Schaffer Inc. to provide cost estimates and study alternatives. According to the study, the route's total cost is $96.9 million. Roughly $50 million of that sum could be used to begin construction of the north and south ends of the corridor between East Sam Herring Road and I-20 on the north and Park and Davis roads on the south, Calhoun said.

District 1 Supervisor Robert Graham said he supports the project but has questions.

"I haven't gotten one single piece of paper from anyone saying how much we need and how we're going to spend it," Graham said Nov. 21. "I don't know if we're going to need $50 million, $100 million or $10 million. I don't know what that magic number is."

Calhoun said that if the public perceives the board to be "stalling" with the development project, it could lose support from citizens as well as the state Legislature.

"If we're going to ask the Legislature to assist us, we need to move forward now," she said. "Not approving the project would send a message that the board is not serious about economic development and creating jobs."

Graham disagreed that the supervisors were stalling. "I think we're just trying to make the best decision we possibly can. If we're going to spend $50 million, I want to make sure we know what we're doing," he said.

He said he'd spoken with Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. City spokesman Chris Mims said that the mayor was concerned that the project would bypass Jackson, offering the city no business-development opportunities and might detract some from South Jackson.

Calhoun said that although Jackson's cooperation is welcome, the county "doesn't need the approval of any other governmental entity to construct the corridor."