Opinion ID: 1721177
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Herald Staff Writer

Text: The 23 families on Huston Ladnier Road in Harrison County Beat 4 wonder if their attitudes will ever improve enough for Supervisor Hue Snowden to pave that dirt and gravel road. Nearly two years ago, two women residing on the road appeared at a board meeting to ask that the road be paved. Snowden, who shortly before had heard the women criticize him on a television news program, said at the meeting the road would not be paved until people living there change their attitudes. One of the women said Snowden told her he will not pave the road until she apologizes for statements made on television. Snowden denies this and said last week he will pave the road when property owners give him necessary easements. But one resident of the road says Snowden's talk of easements is just a ploy. He'll grab the easements and still won't pave the road. That man, who asked not to be identified, and some other families on the road may file for a court order stopping Snowden from continuing paving and widening CC Road, located about 5 miles from Huston Ladnier Road, off Mississippi 53. That road has no houses on it. Snowden said last week he is paving CC Road at the request of Henry Ward, transportation chief of Harrison County schools. But Wednesday morning, Ward denied asking Snowden to pave that road. We do not request them to pave roads, Ward said. During the school year, three buses travel Huston Ladnier Road every day. At least twice, buses loaded with school children have gone off the wet, slippery road into a ditch. He's [Snowden] insisting that we go to his office and sign the easements in front of him, said Mrs. Betty Cuevas, who owns property on Huston Ladnier Road. He's not there half the time. On all the other roads he's paving, he goes to the houses of the people living there for easements. Why can't he do that here? she said. Most of the land along the road belongs to International Paper Co. and Dantzler Lumber Co., and the county already has easements from those companies, Mrs. Cuevas said. Snowden told my son money wasn't the problem. He said nobody on this road is going to vote for him anyway so it doesn't make any difference to him, Mrs. Cuevas said. He blacktops roads that go nowhere. He even paved a little road in Beat 3. Why can't he pave this one? It's pure spite and a waste of the taxpayers money, she said. Julius Cuevas said Snowden told him it would save the county money to pave the road. If he paved it he would not have to send a grader all the way out here after every rain, Cuevas said. Before the 1975 supervisor election, Cuevas said, Snowden paved Shaw Road, which is within one mile of Huston Ladnier Road. I went to the county barn and asked him if he was going to pave our road also. He said yes, that it would be foolish of him to move his equipment without paving our road. So I got my family to vote for him and then he refused to pave the road, Cuevas said. During his current term, which expires at the end of this year, Snowden has paved many miles of road in his district. Most do not have as many families or as much traffic as Huston Ladnier Road. Most of the new roads are only about 10 feet wide and some of them are too narrow for cars to pass. It's all these people out here need, Snowden told a reporter several months ago when asked about the narrow roads. He has also widened and paved Hill Top Road on which there are only a half dozen houses but which also provides access to a new subdivision being built by Circuit Clerk Webb Lee and State Rep. Tommy Gollott. At the end of Hill Top Road Snowden has paved the mile-long Tootle Road. The only home on that road is a trailer occupied by Snowden's daughter. I'm going to pave these roads one by one, Snowden said. And I'm going to pave the ones I have the easements for first. I'm not going to go to court and take these roads on eminent domain. Families on Huston Ladnier Road are mad, bitter and fighting me. As soon as the election is over, I'm hoping they'll come in and go along with me, he said.