Supervisor Willie Wright said he disagrees with the county board’s recent action to divide his portion of a $10 million bond. Although some supervisors said the disbursement was done to handle more roads within the county that needed repairs, Wright said he was taking care of roads within his district outside of the city limits.
“They kept saying I was spending too much of my money on roads within the city limits,” Wright said. “But most of my money was being used for roads outside of the city limits. I even gave some of my money from the previous bond for projects in other districts within the county.”
The disbursement of a $10 million bond among the county supervisors left the board divided last month as to how much each supervisor would be given to complete road paving and repair projects.
Originally, the bond would be divided equally among all five county supervisors, with each receiving $2 million each. However, during a county board meeting last month, three supervisors voted to divide the $2 million from Wright’s portion five ways among the entire board.
Supervisors Lee Moore, David Berry and David Shipp voted to divide Wright’s portion five ways, stating that the other county districts had more miles of road that needed repairs. Supervisor Cobie Collins was not in the board room when the vote was taken.
The board’s recent action would leave Wright with $400,000 in comparison to the other supervisors each receiving $2.4 million. The recent bond is the second $10 million bond provided to the county board.
“With the last bond, I spent about $400,000 within the city limits,” Wright said. “The rest was spent on roads out in the county. I spent about $1.5 million on Ridge Road, Judkins Roads, Bell Road, Old Highway 3 and Renshaw, for example.”
However, Shipp told The Herald that Wright did not do any work on Renshaw, which falls under his district.
Wright said he even gave some of his money from the previous bond to other supervisors.
“I gave Lee Moore about $231,000 to help with Paradise Road,” Wright said. “And I gave Cobie Collins about $30,000 to help repair the parking lot at Yazoo City High School.”
Wright said he was even asked by some supervisors to help with work outside of his district with the arrival of the second bond.
“I was willing to help anybody out,” Wright said. “But this here…it wasn’t fair. I was basically told I had to give up some of my money in order for me to do some work within the city. When I didn’t feel good about what was happening, this vote got brought to the table. It is just not fair and not right.”
