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A local group that wants a plan to stop the media on a busy road
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“Can we stop?” That’s the question 16th Street business owners are asking about the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s plan to build a median on busy Laurel Street.
The proposed project It is slated to break ground in the latter half of 2023, and the 16th Street Committee — about 20 business owners — met at the Laurel Airport Monday night to hear MDOT’s latest update on the project.
Ron Swindall, spokesman for the 16th Avenue Committee, spoke with a group of citizens and business owners trying to stop the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s plan to redesign Laurel’s busiest thoroughfare.
(Photo by Josh
Beasley)
“What I see after working on this for five or six weeks is that MDOT has the money, they want to spend it and they all want to get bonuses at the end of the year,” said group spokesman Ron Swindall. “All these big engineering firms want to get all this money from the government. Neither side, once, stopped and asked the public about it.”
“You can’t deny that they did everything they could to let the 16th Street business know what was going on. And from what I can gather, they didn’t want public comment on this. They wanted to use the money for whatever they wanted.
MDOT’s latest report to the 16th Avenue Committee said the project is complete and the time to challenge the issue has passed — although no formal vote has been taken by the department, Swindall said. Seeking legal counsel against MDOT was one option some business owners suggested, but the consensus among the committee was that the most effective plan was to attack the issue from a different angle.
“We want everyone to know tonight that it’s not something we can fix with a phone call,” Swindall said. “This should be a fight with MDOT.
“Listen, I know Tom King and Brad White at MDOT. They are good people but the problem is that they have become bureaucrats who look after the bureaucratic society. They’d rather do that than listen to business owners who provide most of their tax dollars, allowing them to do whatever they want. They are not public servants. They are lording it over people.”
To fight MDOT on the issue, the committee proposed to start several sub-committees to put pressure on the department. A series of business and housing petitions, social media campaigns, working with media outlets and fundraising for any legal fees are all discussed. The committee indicated that they will start organizing soon. While MDOT says the plan is definitely moving forward because of 16th Avenue’s heavy traffic, business owners plan to point out that the road used to have a median, but it was removed due to safety concerns in the late 1980s.
The attorney, who asked not to be named at the meeting, agreed to develop a comprehensive plan that reflects the views of the subcommittees the committee operates on. The lawyer estimated that there is a 65 percent chance to stop the construction of the middle. If it can’t be stopped, all business owners fear reduced access to their existing businesses.
“They said this would reduce traffic by 17 percent,” said Ken Keyes. If you’re converting 17 percent of these businesses’ traffic, how does retail help? This will do nothing but drive traffic into our neighborhoods. If there is a window where we have to fight this, we have to.
King was contacted but unavailable for comment by press time on Wednesday.
“It really upsets me that government officials say there’s no time for a public opinion when they’re so busy,” Swindal said. “They took the path of least resistance with no regard for the people of Laurel other than the most debatable safety concerns.”
Regarding the project, to which MDOT representatives were invited in June but did not attend, Rep. Donnie Scoggin (R-Ellisville) explained how the project came about, noting that it originated at the federal level.
“The Biden administration has a pot of money and they’ve pulled data” and the number of traffic accidents on the stretch of road in Laurel “meets the standard” to “order these changes,” he said. “That’s where it all came from.”
He and other officials pointed out that when MDOT receives such authority from the federal government, the changes must be made or risk losing federal funding. King is the “pot of money” and oversees highway projects in Jones County.
“It’s like they put a gun to our heads and say, ‘Do it or we’ll withhold your money,'” said Larry Loftin, another 16th Avenue business owner. “We have to fight this.”
Scoggin said, “The only thing left to do is meet Tom King… and good luck with that.
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