Jackson Jambalaya

Never let it be said State Representative Trey Lamar (R-Hazzard County) ignores his homies.   Mississippi Today's Geoffrey Pender and Taylor Vance reported October 9, 2024: 

House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar has helped steer more than $7 million in state money to improve the affluent country club neighborhood and private golf course area where he lives in north Mississippi. ...

Lamar in an interview with Mississippi Today defended the spending on his neighborhood. He said the road project was badly needed for safety for a “very dangerous road.” He said the road project then caused flooding on the golf course and surrounding yards and the county was responsible for fixing it.

Lamar said the small water system serving the neighborhood was in terrible shape and the source of many complaints. He noted the state Public Service Commission signed off on Senatobia taking over service. Rest of rather long article.

The article has a discussion with the residents, county engineer, and contractors over how bad the flooding was.   Apparently, it was pretty bad.  

Mr. Lamar issued the following statement to JJ and Mississippi Today: 

Investments in infrastructure have occurred from the Tennessee state line to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and everywhere in between across our great state - literally every County and City has received funding from the Legislature. Dangerous roads are being repaired and other important public infrastructure is being modernized. Without question, this is a core function of government, and it is work that the people demand from their elected representatives.

During my career, I have been pleased to help my fellow Mississippians secure funding to repair broken infrastructure in cities and counties all over Mississippi, including where I call home. In many cases, state funding for infrastructure repairs has been secured when local governments could not fund the needed work themselves. The partnerships we have with our local governments have been crucial to actually getting work done for the people, and it is clear that progress is being made as we watch old, crumbling infrastructure being repaired all over Mississippi. For example, in my home of Tate County approximately 128 miles of county roads have recently been improved with funding provided by the Legislature. These efforts help and benefit all Mississippians.

With this background, I was recently asked about the reality of a family member owning private property in the vicinity of a public infrastructure project. In response, I would simply say that my family lives and works among the people, and the constituents that live in these areas request the same basic level of services that all Mississippians expect. After helping with thousands of projects across the state, this result is inevitable. But for the record, I will clearly state that at no time have any public funds been used on private property owned by myself or my family. Although we cannot please everyone with every action taken, I believe the vast majority of Mississippians appreciate the Legislature’s commitment to repairing public infrastructure. Any potential innuendo of wrongdoing is baseless and only diverts time and effort away from the real progress that we are making.

Former Tate County Supervisor  Cam Walker issued the following statement to the online newspaper as well: 

The Country Club Road safety and improvement project in Tate County originated shortly after I took office as supervisor of District 1 in 2004. At that time, Mississippi State Highway 740 had just been completed which placed a lot more traffic on Country Club Road than in years past as people living out in Tate and Panola counties were using the road as a quicker route to get to interstate 55. As supervisor, I negotiated a deal with farmer and landowner Mike Massey (MRM Farms) where Mr. Massey agreed to donate approximately 5 acres of right of way to Tate County in exchange for the County straightening a dangerous 90 degre1 curve and replacing an old bridge located in this curve. At that time, the county engineer believed that the corps of engineers would help the county fund this construction project.

As a result, the deed from Mr. Massey to Tate County was signed in 2006. However, the corps of engineers funding never came through. In 2012, I again tried to secure funding to begin the Country Club Road safety project from our congressional delegation. This is when the 2006 deed from Mr. Massey to Tate County was recorded in the land records. Again, the funding for the project never materialized. Over the years, additional residential subdivisioni continued to be built adjacent to Country Club Road increasing traffic and making the road even less safe. The road had dangerous intersections and at least two steep hills that prevented passengers from seeing oncoming traffic due to an impaired line of sight. As a result, I installed stop signs and other traffic safety devices at various points up and down the road to attempt to slow down the traffic and improve safety. These efforts had little effect as the road remained dangerous and was in need of being reconstructed. I also attended at least two public hearings while I was in office where citizens from Tate County appeared and demanded that Country Club Road be improved and made safer. When I retired as supervisor in 2019, it was my understanding that we had finally begun to receive funding to make the needed repairs to Country Club Road.

The complete statements of Mr. Lamar and Mr. Walker did not appear in the Mississippi Today article.  The Board of Supervisors issued a statement as well but the online newspaper did not publish it as well. 

Kingfish note: Legislators bring home the bacon to their districts. It is what they are expected to do. Speed at 75 mph and no one notices. The cops don't care, other motorists don't care, it's just the way it is. Speed at 95 mph and everyone notices.