City leaders discuss outcome of Long Beach roads study

LONG BEACH, MS (WLOX) - Long Beach residents should see some infrastructure improvements in the near future. City leaders met Tuesday night to discuss a roads study to determine how to use $1 million in improvement funds from the Mississippi Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2018.

After three months, city leaders in Long Beach got a chance to see the results of a study to determine how to move forward with improvements across the city.

"We have some money that was given to us, around a million dollars, and it's set aside for either paving or drainage," said Mayor George Bass.

Bass knows there are some high traffic roads in Long Beach, but with more than 100 miles of roadway in the city, smaller roads sometimes get left behind.

“We need to look and see what we can do about making some true repairs because I know there are streets here that haven’t been repaired in probably thirty years that we need to direct some attention to because those homeowners that are living there on those streets,” said Bass. “It may be four, five, or six residents on those streets. But guess what, they’ve been paying taxes for the last thirty years. They deserve our attention also.”

Public Works Director Joe Culpepper believes the money can be put to good use in the city. It’s just a matter of finding the most efficient areas to fix.

“I think we’re going to find out the quality of all our roads. Then we’re going to be able to sort these roads out and see which ones we can put the least amount of money to to prolong the most life out of,” Culpepper said.

Bass says along with the roads, a drainage project is expected to be put out for bids at next week’s board of aldermen meeting. That project will aim to reduce flooding in the Lover’s Lane area.

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