Joint Industrial Park Wants Merging Lane

The Coffee County Joint Industrial Park could be getting a new acceleration lane onto Highway 55 at no cost to county taxpayers. Members of the Coffee County Industrial Board appeared this past week with the county Budget and Finance Committee to request their help in coordinating the funding for the new merging lane. They stated that while Omar industries won’t be expanding their glove manufacturing here, they would be increasing their distribution. The industrial officials stated that the warehouse will cause more truck traffic coming out of the park, and a merging lane would help the trucks accelerate more safely into the traffic on 55. It was noted that the state would pay for all the paving as well as half of the cost of purchasing right-of-ways and moving power poles to build the new merging lane.