Lee County supervisors say clearing icy roads was challenging
Extreme cold temperatures limited options for clearing ice off county roads
LEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Barry Parker was sworn in as one of the newest Lee County supervisors earlier this month, and it wasn’t long before he was dealing with his first countywide crisis.
“We got put through the fire the first couple of weeks,” Parker said.
Parker has been helping crews do what they can to try and clear ice off roads in District Five. However, the extreme cold limited their options during the worst of the deep freeze.
“We started out with a motor grader. We graded right after it fell, and noticed we took a layer off, but it was slicker than before. It didn’t help traction. We stopped that, salted more, and salted all major hills, and dangerous curves. We used up all our salt. We used every resource we had to get it safer for the people in Lee County,” Parker said.
Moving forward, Board President Wesley Webb said he would encourage supervisors to meet with the road manager, to come up with a list of roads that need work.
“Figure out key roads in each district and what’s taking on most traffic, and make sure we get those roads as clean as we can, and as fast as we can. Look and see where we can improve. We can always improve on something. We can’t control God. This may be God’s way of making us slow down sometimes,” Webb said.
Webb also pointed out that road crews have to stay safe, to be able to do their jobs effectively.
Engineers also said as the ice gets colder on the roads, it takes even more salt to make any impact.
