DAILY LEADER FILE PHOTO Lincoln County school buses sit ready for routes.

A Lincoln County dad seems to be navigating a school bus turnaround runaround.

Kenneth Johnson attended Monday’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors to question why he is paying out-of-pocket to fix a roadway so a school bus can pick up his 10-year-old daughter.

Johnson’s home is one of two on the half-mile-long road off Loyd Star Lane that serves as a driveway for three property owners. His daughter can’t see the bus from the designated pickup on the public roadway.

For his daughter’s first three years of school, District 5 Supervisor Doug Falvey maintained the private driveway as a school bus turnaround, but that stopped when the mistake was discovered. Johnson has since paid to repair the road himself, even putting a circular drive in his yard so the bus driver doesn’t have to back up to turn around.

 “Mr. Falvey did all he could do those first three years, but if his hands are tied, his hands are tied,” he said.

Falvey explained the county did repair the driveway and maintain it in the past.

“But we had a misinterpretation of a school bus turnaround,” he said.

One requirement of Mississippi law is that a school district must make a written request to the county to maintain a private roadway before the supervisors can approve the work. The district also has requirements for determining if a private driveway can be used as a school bus turnaround.

“The school board’s got to say, ‘This is a bus turnaround.’ And they haven’t done that. Until that happens, it would be violating the law,” said County Attorney Greg Malta.

Falvey said the school district’s designation for a school bus turnaround requires more than just having a school bus travel a road and then turn around at the end. The bus must go back the way it came, not continue on in another direction.

“They just drive down there and pick his student up, turn around and keep on going. It’s not the end of the route,” Falvey said. “No matter what the school board does, it’s not a school bus turnaround, according to law.”

He said it is the school bus driver that is making the decision to travel the half-mile long road to pick up Johnson’s daughter.

“If it doesn’t go down there, then his student has to come all the way to Loyd Star Lane,” Falvey said.

Johnson is grateful the bus picks up his daughter, but he questions why the county can’t at least supply the gravel for him to repair the potholes the vehicle is creating.

“The bus can come tear the road up, but I’ve got to work and pay for it myself,” he said. “I don’t think it’s fair for me to go fix the road when I pay taxes.”

Johnson said he inquired with the Lincoln County School District about getting the driveway fixed but he was sent back to face the Board of Supervisors because it doesn’t meet the requirements for the turnaround designation.

District 4 Supervisor Eli Ferguson suggested Johnson submit a request to make the driveway a public road. 

Falvey said the half-mile driveway would need to be brought up to county standards before it could become a named public road.

Johnson was given a guide outlining the process.

District 1 Supervisor Jerry Wilson suggested Johnson talk to the school district’s transportation director.

“Take him out there and let him see it,” he said.