Mississippi
Check out all of the MDOT projects underway in western Mississippi
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Commissioner Willie Simmons has introduced updates to a number of Mississippi Division of Transportation upkeep tasks in western Mississippi.
“These tasks, a few of which have been lately accomplished or nearing completion, are a significant funding into our infrastructure system that may make Mississippi a safer place to reside and work,” mentioned Simmons. “These tasks will vastly enhance security and effectivity all through the western a part of our state.”
Greenville Bypass development continues
Crews are making headway on the development of roughly 9 miles of four-lane freeway generally known as the U.S. 82 Greenville Bypass from State Route 1 to Leland. Work started on the key development venture final 12 months.
Six field culverts have been constructed with work on two others underway. Crews at the moment are getting ready to pour deck on the Kuhn Street bridge, driving piles for the Previous U.S. 61 bridge, pouring columns for a Black Bayou bridge and paving the mainline from Kuhn Street to Previous U.S. 61.
“As soon as full, the Greenville Bypass will vastly alleviate site visitors congestion, improve protected driving circumstances and improve enterprise and financial alternatives in Greenville, Leland and surrounding areas,” mentioned Simmons. “It’s thrilling to see such progress on this large development venture in Washington County. I contemplate this venture one of many best in a few years within the Mississippi Delta and stay up for seeing it by.”
The $137 million contract was awarded to Eutaw Building of Madison. Work is on observe to be accomplished fall 2025.
I-20 Frontage Street extension venture full in Vicksburg
Crews lately accomplished a capability venture in Vicksburg that may enhance security and mobility within the space. The venture referred to as for the development of the I-20 south frontage street extension to U.S. 80 in Warren County.
“The venture additionally included repairs to 5 bridges throughout the Vicksburg metropolis limits, additional preserving infrastructure in western Mississippi,” mentioned Simmons.
The $17.3 million contract was awarded to T.L. Wallace Building, Inc. of Columbia.
Mill and overlay on I-55 in Holmes County
A mill and overlay of twenty-two miles of I-55 from half a mile north of State Route 17 to the Carroll County line continues in Holmes County. Along with the mill and overlay, timber are additionally being cleared inside 50 ft of the journey lane.
Crews proceed clearing efforts and repairing failed areas on ramps all through the venture.
The $39 million venture was awarded to APAC-Mississippi of Jackson. Work is estimated to be accomplished by spring 2024.
U.S. 61 intersection enhancements close to completion in Jefferson County
A venture that gives enhancements to the intersection of U.S. 61 and State Route 533 in Jefferson County is wrapping up. Most work is full because the contractor awaits everlasting signage to put in.
“The venture will vastly improve security circumstances alongside a busy intersection of two highways close to Fayette,” mentioned Simmons.
The $2.7 million venture was awarded to G. Rayborn Contracting of Natchez. Remaining work will wrap up by the spring.
State Route 27 bridge substitute in Warren County
A venture to interchange a bridge on State Route 27 over the Massive Black River in Warren County is making headway. Clearing operations are full and borrow materials is being hauled in to assemble the brand new alignment.
Drilled shafts are being constructed on the south finish of the bridge. Crews are starting to pour caps on the north facet of the Massive Black River.
The $19 million contract was awarded to Key, LLC of Madison. Work is estimated to be accomplished this fall.
State Route 3 slide restore in Warren County
A slide restore venture on State Route 3 positioned 3.4 miles north of the U.S. 61/SR 3 interchange stays underway. The venture additionally requires the restore of a field culvert 0.1 mile north of State Route 433.
The slope close to the IP Plant has been graded and grassed. Remaining work is on observe to be accomplished by the summer time.
The $1.3 million contract was awarded to Hemphill Building Firm of Florence.
State Route 18 bridge substitute in Copiah County
A bridge substitute venture on State Route 18 between the Claiborne and Hinds County strains is underway in Copiah County. Field culverts are presently being constructed together with the detour.
The $4.9 million contract was awarded to Joe McGee Building Firm of Lake. Work is anticipated to be accomplished by spring 2024.
State Route 27 bridge substitute in Hinds County
One other bridge substitute venture on SR 27 is underway over Maxie Creek in Hinds County. Site visitors has been moved onto the detour bridge. Crews are presently driving piles for the brand new bridge.
The $5.6 million contract was awarded to Key, LLC. The venture is predicted to wrap up this fall.
Interstate 55 overlay continues in Copiah County
A mill and overlay of 11 miles of I-55 from the Lincoln County line to Hazlehurst is progressing in Copiah County. All clearing operations alongside the interstate are full. Crews have accomplished half of the mainline paving.
The $16.1 million contract was awarded to W.E. Blain & Sons of Mount Olive. Remaining work is on observe to be accomplished summer time 2023.
Lottery-funded tasks wrapping up throughout district
In Claiborne County, a lottery-funded overlay of State Route 548 from the start of state upkeep at Hermanville to the Copiah County line is underway. Crews have repaired failed areas on the venture and can start mainline paving. The $2.8 million venture was awarded to Dickerson & Bowen of Jackson, and is predicted to wrap up this spring.
In Copiah County, a lottery-funded mill and overlay of 14 miles of U.S. 51 from the Lincoln County line to south of State Route 28, a half mile of State Route 850 from U.S. 51 to the top of state upkeep and simply over half a mile of State Route 848 from U.S. 51 to the top of state upkeep is underway. The contractor has begun mainline paving efforts. The practically $5 million venture was awarded to Dickerson & Bowen and anticipated to wrap up this spring.
In Humphreys County, a lottery-funded mill and overlay of two miles of U.S. 49 W from the five-lane part south of Belzoni to north of State Route 12 west is full. The $3.2 million venture was awarded to APAC-Mississippi.
In Issaquena County, a lottery-funded mill and overlay of eight miles of State Route 16 from the start of state upkeep in Grace to the top of state upkeep in Rolling Fork is full. The $4.3 million venture was awarded to APAC-Mississippi.
In Sharkey County, a lottery-funded venture that requires the overlay of 20 miles of U.S. 61 from the Issaquena County line to Rolling Fork is full. The $6.1 million contract was awarded to APAC-Mississippi.
In Sunflower County, the state lottery and $250,000 in particular funds from the legislature overlayed eight miles of State Route 3 from U.S. 49 W to U.S. 82 at Moorhead. The $2.8 million venture was awarded to APAC-Mississippi. All work on this venture is full.
District-wide intersection enhancements
A venture calling for enhancements to intersections all through District 3 is underway. Work consists of updating and including indicators, stripe, raised pavement markers, flasher assemblies and lights at numerous intersections all through the district. Crews have begun striping and putting in indicators at numerous intersections all through the district.
The practically $3 million venture was awarded to Atwood Fence Firm of Kosciusko. Work is scheduled to be accomplished this summer time.
“I wish to specific my appreciation to the MDOT workers, the contractors and their workers for conserving Mississippi shifting by their devoted work on our state roads and bridges,” mentioned Simmons. “Motorists are reminded to decelerate and be on excessive alert for roadside staff working to finish these tasks as rapidly and safely as doable. Lastly, as Commissioner, I wish to thank the taxpayers for permitting us to place your tax {dollars} to give you the results you want.”
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Mississippi
How Mississippi State football is preparing for Arizona State weather, late kickoff
![How Mississippi State football is preparing for Arizona State weather, late kickoff How Mississippi State football is preparing for Arizona State weather, late kickoff](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/09/03/PNAS/75060541007-usatsi-24129028.jpg?auto=webp&crop=5472,3078,x0,y0&format=pjpg&width=1200)
STARKVILLE — Mississippi State football is preparing to play a team that, at least through one game, looks vastly improved from last season.
Coach Jeff Lebby admitted on Monday, and Bulldog players have noticed it too after Arizona State (1-0) thumped Wyoming 48-7 in its opener.
MSU (1-0) must also factor in the late kickoff that is scheduled Saturday (9:30 p.m. CT, ESPN) at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Mississippi is hot, but so is Arizona — a different kind of hot, too.
Modifications and remedies are being made, such as the team leaving Starkville on Thursday instead of how it normally would on a Friday for a Saturday game.
“For our guys, just knowing exactly what we are getting into,” Lebby said. “We continue to talk about that through yesterday and this morning and (are) having those conversations to understand what it’s going to look like late in the week. We got to do a great job from a preparation standpoint of how we are hydrating, how we are eating and how we are resting to give us the ability to go on the road on this flight and be able to be at our best Saturday night.”
Just this week, Phoenix broke a record with its 100th straight day of 100-degree temperatures. According to AccuWeather, the high on Saturday in Tempe will be 107 degrees with a low of 86. The temperature should dip to around 91 near kickoff with a humidity of 24%.
“Coach Lebby has already been harping on that,” tight end Justin Ball said. “We’ve already been hydrating and making sure we are getting rest every single day. We leave on Thursday, so we already talked about the plan to make sure we are hydrating the entire plane ride there, making sure when we get there we get acclimated as quickly as you can and just staying together. Making sure we’re focused, make sure we keep the goal first and then execute the game plan.”
MORE: Jeff Lebby says Mississippi State football didn’t put on a good enough show. Here’s how he’s wrong
Mississippi State played well the last time it played in Arizona
The Bulldogs played Arizona in Tucson two seasons ago. They squandered a pedestrian Wildcats team 39-17. Kickoff for that game was at 8 p.m. PST though the temperature was 84 degrees at game time.
Not many players remain on Mississippi State’s roster from that 2022 season. But the ones who are, like linebacker Nic Mitchell, can benefit from the experience and also share it with teammates.
“We know it’s going to be a long flight, so we know we got to be hydrated,” Mitchell said. “It gives people experience that have done it before and they can tell the young guys how it’s going to be in the flight, how you got to hydrate and stuff like that.”
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
Mississippi
Playing for Mississippi State not an option for Arizona State back Kyson ‘Sipp’ Brown
Arizona State forces 3 turnovers in win over Wyoming to start 2024
All offseason, coach Kenny Dillingham preached getting turnovers. Forty seconds into the season’s first game, the defense produced its first one.
Sophomore running back Kyson Brown is one of the faster players on the Arizona State football team. But Brown seems to have a little more pep in his step this week. Why? Well, the Sun Devils (1-0) are set to take on Mississippi State (1-0) at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at Mountain America Stadium.
Sure an SEC opponent is enough to get any athlete fired up. But the 6-foot, 200-pounder hails from Tupelo, Mississippi, which is where he got his nickname, Sipp. Tupelo is 67 miles north of the Mississippi State campus in Starkville that Sipp has visited a handful of times.
“I have family, growing up they were all Mississipp State fans and some Ole Miss fans,” he said. “Some of my family are debating whether they want to cheer for me or not. It’s going to be good. A lot of hometown friends. Got a couple guys I went to high school with there. It’s going to be good seeing those guys and hopefully, we compete at a good level and get the W.”
Brown, a mechanical engineering major, is enrolled in ASU’s Barret honors program, He emerged as one of the team’s most improved players. He saw some time on special teams as a true freshman in 2023 and has set himself up for a bigger role, although the ASU backfield has a lot of depth.
In the last week’s 48-7 win over Wyoming, Brown pitched in with six rushing attempts for 25 yards and two receptions for 73 yards. His 68-yard touchdown reception was the longest play from scrimmage that ASU had on the night.
“It felt amazing just to get back in the end zone again,” Brown said. “You come out of high school, you know I’m used to being in the end zone every game, all the time. That play, I knew — once I made the first guy miss — I knew I wasn’t going to let anybody catch me.”
Brown lived in Mississippi until moving to Lancaster, Texas, outside of Dallas, after his sophomore year of high school. He sat out junior year after the transfer. As a senior he averaged 9.5 yards per carry, finishing with 707 yards and 11 touchdowns on 74 carries while adding 14 receptions for 168 yards and two touchdowns.
Sitting out his junior year hurt his recruiting, but he still had notable offers from Purdue, Missouri and Houston. The balance of his options were lower-profile schools. Mississippi State didn’t offer.
He is happy with the end result. A place on the ASU football roster. In the offseason, he worked on his agility, flexibility and catching the ball, which was evident in his recent scoring play.
“We all have the big-play potential,” he said of his fellow running backs. “I feel my role is to make plays, wherever they put me be able to perform.”
Mississippi
Report shows Mississippi Legislature retirement reforms this year aren’t effective. See why
![Report shows Mississippi Legislature retirement reforms this year aren’t effective. See why Report shows Mississippi Legislature retirement reforms this year aren’t effective. See why](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/04/30/PJAM/73515915007-tcl-legislature-06.jpg?auto=webp&crop=2999,1687,x0,y100&format=pjpg&width=1200)
Lawmakers, PERS director agree they must work together in the future
How to plan for retirement using an online calculator
Retirement calculators can give you an idea of when you’ll financially be able to retire.
Problem Solved
State lawmakers will need to readdress concerns about the Public Employment Retirement System of Mississippi in 2025 if it is to remain viable long term, according to a July study.
Legislative actions in the 2024 Session to reduce public employer contribution rate hikes and increase state funding are not enough to address billions in unfunded future benefits to retirees, according to a report released by the Legislature’s third-party watchdog group, the Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee.
Projections show the state’s retirement plan being less than 50% fully funded by 2047 and having $25 billion in liabilities. According to several municipal leaders who spoke to the Clarion Ledger earlier this year, the legislative move from lawmakers in the past session should save public employers from cutting positions and raising taxes to keep and hire more public employees.
“Change in approach for increasing the employer contribution rate, in addition to the one-time funds transfer, reduces the plan’s projected future funded ratio from 65.5% to 49.9%,” the report reads. “…The PERS plan is currently expected to be at a lower-funded level in the future than it currently is today.”
PERS Executive Director Ray Higgins told the Clarion Ledger he wasn’t surprised by the report’s findings.
“The PEER analysis seems to be an accurate report and generally reconciles with our information,” Higgins said. “Also, the legislative action from last session appears to be a short-term solution.”
While the report does not list out any specific recommendations for lawmakers this coming year, it says continued work will be necessary to fix the retirement system that has 118,000 retirees receiving benefits and 147,000 active members paying into the system.
In 2023, the PERS governing board, made up of mostly elected members, as advised by financial actuaries who watch over the state’s retirement plan, passed a rate increase on public employers, such as cities, counties and school districts from 17.40% to 19.90% that was to take effect July 1. The rate would have continued to increase to 22.4% by 2027.
In the 2024 Session, the Legislature passed two bills. Senate 3231, prohibits the PERS Board’s plan to gradually increase the employer contribution rate and replaces it with a plan to increase to 19.90% over the next five years in 0.5% annual increases. SB 3231 also takes the board’s only regulatory power to increase rates and puts it in the hands of the Legislature.
SB 2468 enacts a one-time transfer of $110 million of capital expense funds into the PERS trust.
More on PERS bill MS Legislature passes bill restricting state retirement board’s authority
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann’s Deputy Chief of Staff Leah Rupp Smith told the Clarion Ledger efforts Hosemann helped push forward that resulted in those bills’ passage led to a potentially more stable retirement system.
“To avoid this calamity while developing a future solution, the Legislature adopted a less-aggressive employer increase,” Smith wrote via email. “We are now informed the plan has a projected future funding ratio of 65.5% as of 2047, as compared to 48.6% projected one year ago.”
Republican House Speaker Jason White’s Communications Director Taylor Spillman did not reply to several emails requesting White’s comments on the report.
What are the big problems?
Higgins previously said the ratio of retirees to active members has seen a reverse trend since 2013, when there were 93,000 retirees and 162,000 active members. This increases the unfunded liability of the system as fewer people take jobs in government, reducing active members and more people retire, increasing the funding obligation of PERS.
The other issue lies with projections for the retirement plan’s future if state lawmakers decide not to take action in the years to come.
“While the ($110 million) funding for the first year is comparable, each year in the future could potentially see a greater deviation in expected employer contribution revenues for the PERS plan,” the report reads. “This deviation does not immediately constitute a problem for the PERS plan; however, careful evaluation of the plan’s future liabilities and funding needs will be necessary to ensure the sustainability of the PERS plan.”
Are there any solutions?
Higgins and Smith both said future work on PERS is still a top priority.
Higgins specifically mentioned a new retirement benefits package that could be offered to new public sector employees, which the PERS board has called tier 5.
“The Board has previously recommended a tier 5 for new employees to help better sustain PERS in the future and is currently considering what may be included or resubmitted in next year’s legislative package,” Higgins said.
Read about new Medicaid program Mississippi Medicaid prenatal care access program still awaiting federal approval. Why?
Earlier this year, Hosemann told the Clarion Ledger he wanted to see evidence that a new tier of benefits could help maintain the retirement system long term. Smith did not confirm whether Hosemann’s office is currently studying that idea in the legislative off season, but she did say the Legislature is looking at several ideas.
“The Legislature is exploring any option for a more viable plan,” Smith said. “The Lt. Governor continues to be committed to fulfilling current employee and retiree benefits, including the cost-of-living adjustment for these individuals.”
Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335.
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