For a second time, the Hinds County Board of Supervisors voted down additional funding for a project that would address erosion along White Oak Creek in northeast Jackson.
The supervisors vetoed an additional $2 million for repairs to the creek during their July 5 meeting and their July 18 meeting.
The Legislature allocated $2 million during the 2022 session for the project and Robert Graham, who represents District 1 on the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, lobbied for the county to commit another $2 million from the $22.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act to the project.
Credell Calhoun of District 3 said the $2 million would be better used to help put in a water line in south Jackson. He thinks funding for erosion control can be found to repair White Oak Creek.
Jo Jo Adams, an attorney who has lived on Carolwood Drive since about 2003, said he is confident that in the near future the supervisors will use the $2 million from the state to repair the worst erosion along the creek.
“I believe in the future, there will be a good faith effort to revisit the issue,” he said.
The amount and extent of the erosion shocks everyone who views it, Adams said.
“This needs to be repaired,” he said. “It’s something that people up and down White Oak Creek have bene asking for help with for a very long time.”
Erosion along the creek has gotten worse and worse over time, he said. “I’d say starting in 2018, 2019 and 2020, the flooding wiped a lot of stuff out. It’s so bad that any time there’s significant water coming through the creek, it’s going to take out more dirt.”
Ten to 12 feet of Adams’ backyard and a fence have washed away. “There are people up and down the creek that have lost footage,” he said.
In 2020, the erosion along the creek was so bad it washed a gazebo into the creek and it almost swept away a swimming pool, he said.
Ashby Foote learned about erosion along White Oak Creek and how homeowners were frustrated about losing their backyards to erosion soon after he became a member of the Jackson City Council in 2014.
Upstream development is part of the problem, he said.
White Oak Creek runs from south Madison County near the Bridgewater subdivision, takes in drainage from the Dinsmor subdivision, goes under Highland Colony Parkway and I-220 and behind the Target shopping center at County Line Road and I-55.
Then it cuts under I-55, crosses Adkins Boulevard and Ridgewood Road and runs through several northeast Jackson neighborhoods to Hanging Moss Creek and empties into the Pearl River.
Foote would like to see the project done in the best manner possible.
“The residents have suffered with erosion in their backyards for over 25 years,” he said. “It would be a shame not to do a complete job. To do it in a less than sufficient way would be disappointing.”
