Tupelo gas war

[Seymore]

For those looking for a deal on gas, at least for the short term, the 3 gas stations in front of Wal-Mart are in a gas war. Dodges, Murphy, and JR's Mart started late last week and the wife just filled the tank at Murphy for $2.69. We went to Memphis earlier in the week and it was just under $3.00 everywhere we looked.

[DRYLOK]

2.59 today

[levi127]

Olive branch still 2.95+
Memphis is about the same price also.
Better then last year at 3.50 a gallon almost everywhere up here.

[yankee]

continue to count your many blessings in the south. here in yankee land, we pay about another buck a gallon. most of the difference is in taxes. anywhere between 3.50 and 3.75 this week.

[ms_deer_hunter]

[Po Monkey Lounger]

Another big problem with maintaining existing roads and building new ones is the large, dysfunctional, inefficient state bureaucracy known as MDOT, which wastes taxpayer money that could be going toward those needed road projects, engages in petty politics, and has too many rules, regulations, and layers of bureaucracy for decision making, all of which slows progress, takes away the ability to apply common sense measures, and takes away precious dollars from our roadway projects.

Fix and streamline MDOT ( blow it up and start over), and THEN consider raising the gas tax. Giving MDOT, in its current form, even more of our hard earned money to waste and squander is too depressing to think about.

[rebelduckaholic]

Tell me how MDOT is so inefficient. I would like to hear it. Considering the roads being built today will never be done any cheaper than they are today.

If you want a more efficient MDOT then they need to have more money for salaries to hire more qualified employees. You could then operate with less people but the overall pay out for salaries would be the same.

Have you tried to hire someone lately for a career and pay em 18000 a year? Let me know how that turns out for you. Especially when you can't pay them overtime and their salary is just that 18,000 a year. Then these employees will go five plus years without even so much as a cost of living raise.

They are the ones on the road getting cussed because people's lives are slowed down just a bit. Yet never think to call and say they appreciate how much better the traffic flow or how much smoother a road is after the construction.

[southdeltan]

[Po Monkey Lounger]

I'll give you one example from my world.

State decides to take property by eminent domain for new highway. Offers affected landowners an amount based upon their internal appraisal method, which is well below any reasonable appraisal of fair market value. Landowner decides not to accept based upon much higher appraisal by landowner's chosen appraiser. MDOT will not negotiate, and will not voluntarily pay more, even though their own local attorney acknowledges that a jury at trial will most likely order them to pay more. State takes property using quick take statutory procedure. Independent appraiser appointed by Court comes in with appraisal of fair market value much higher than MDOT, very close to landowner's own chosen appraiser. MDOT still won't settle. MDOT must go ahead and pay landowner a certain statutory percentage of the fair market value determined by independent appraiser appointed by Court. Case goes to trial. As expected, the jury sides with landowner and makes MDOT pay more. In the process, the taxpayers are footing the bill for the legal fees charged by the local attorney representing MDOT. When I asked the head attorney for MDOT why they would not simply negotiate and pay more to settle ( which would actually save the state money in most instances), he indicated that it was very difficult to get the authority to settle due to all the decision makers that would have to be involved in the process, with any such decisions ultimately having to be approved at a periodic meeting of such decision makers. Thus, due to this lengthy process, it was easier just to let the case go to Court and then pay what the jury said to pay. Thus, the bottom line of this dysfunctional process, is that MDOT makes a lower than true fair market value offer, in a take it or leave it manner, and makes the landowners go to trial if they want anywhere close to what should be paid. The only way this saves money is if the landowner just does not want to go to trial (scared, too costly, etc) --- in other words, they first try to screw the landowner/citizen. And if that doesn't work, rather than concede the obvious, they force the landowner to trial, wasting our taxpayer dollars on attorney fees. Why not simply offer a fair amount from the start? And why not streamline the process of negotiating and settlement of cases that will obviously be lost in Court ( when the Court appointed appraiser comes back with an appraisal much higher than MDOT's, then losing is a foregone conclusion). Common sense and fairness seems to be completely lost in this process.

What I just described is not an isolated event. This sequence of events, or close variations, happens over and over.

I can go into other examples outside of the legal arena if you desire. How much time do you have?

How about MDOT spending money to advertise? Why? Do they have a competitor? Or spending taxpayer money to lobby the legislature for more taxpayer money? Why do we need so many departments within the MDOT --- which often results in the proverbial right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing? Why can't all of our highways be built using the same efficient, fast, streamlined approach as that successfully used recently to build the new 4 lane of Hwy 9 between Pontotoc and Hwy 78? Why is the Hwy 6 project taking longer than construction of the Great Wall of China? Workers have probably started their career and ended them while working on this project. Why are the state roadway infrastructures (eg bypasses, etc) so far behind in the Oxford area, particularly on Hwy 6? IMO, the only state agency worse than MDOT is the State Tax Commission (aka The Gestapo).

[rebelduckaholic]

MDOT bids out every job. There are MDOT inspectors out there inspecting the projects being built to ensure the State gets a road or bridge built to standards and specifications that MDOT and FHWA requires. I completely understand where people get the wrong perception, but at this time now my office is understaffed at least ten people with the workload going on right now. It's not the norm but it is where I'm at right now. Just to put into perspective MDOT salaries are only 10% of the budget of MDOT.

I don't see all the politics of it because we are out there while te project is being built. Mainly I was referring to the inefficient part due to I know for a fact out office is operating at probably the most efficiency possible with te salaries we are allowed to pay

[rebelduckaholic]

I know that when land was being acquired for highway 15 four lane it was all independent appraisers. I am pretty sure when land was acquired for te future I 269 it was all done by independent appraisers

[rebelduckaholic]

Part of I 269 is a design build just like Highway 9.
Highway 6. I know one thing that stalled that project was the fact that the contractor doing the dirt work did not finish on time stalling the paving project.


Couldn't tell you about the advertising.

[hillhunter]

I don't know what the state spends on road crew and such, but I always thought it would be cheaper to hire contractors to keep the roadways mowed. I'm not saying anything against any of the people who work for MDOT, but private industry plays by a different set of rules than government. They can pay overtime and work longer hours if needed. And if the contractors did it you don't have money tied up in retirement programs and such. If you told me hey, your the lowest bidder, you must have the right of way in shape and grass can be no taller than X# of inches at anytime then I believe a private entity would be more efficient. Again not saying anything against MDOT, but there is a lot of waste in government.

Rebelduckaholic, the one place that I do see the state government fall short is in providing support for their employees with professional careers such as engineers, doctors, nurses, etc. There is definitely a place for people who make sure things get done right with our money, or they won't get done right, simple as that.

[rebelduckaholic]

I know in the northern part of the state the 4 lane roads are mowed by independent contractors. I can promise you what they spend on maintenance crews is not nearly enough. Those guys do the work nobody notices and they are very under appreciated.