(Barrett Wilson) Hey, y’all. Football season is finally here. To avoid delays on the Road to Game Day, be sure to download the MDOT Traffic mobile app or visit MDOTtraffic.com, where you can get real-time updates on crashes, closures and construction. To reach the end zone, MDOT encourages safe driving. That means buckle up, obey the speed limit and avoid distracted driving, especially in work zones. For more information, follow @MississippiDOT on Facebook, X and Instagram.

[Music and Intro]

(Drew Hall) MDOT presents The Extra Mile Podcast

(Paul Katool) Welcome in to another edition of the Extra Mile Podcast presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. I'm Paul Katool, and as always, I'm joined by my cohost, Will Craft. And today, we’re excited to talk to another member of MDOT’s senior leadership team. We’re here with Janie Bass, who is the Assistant Chief Engineer of Field Operations. I’ve always thought field operations sounded really cool, so you’ve obviously got a very, very awesome job here at MDOT. Janie, thank you so much for stopping by and talking with us today.

(Janie Bass) Glad to be here. Thank you.

(Paul) So we're going to start you off with the, the normal question, the customary question for new guests. So, talk about who you are a little bit kind of leading up to this position that you have it at MDOT. So, what all kind of have you done?

(Janie) Luckily for me, I've had the opportunity to work in a couple of the different districts. I actually started my career, uh, as a summer intern student when I was at Mississippi State.

(Will Craft) Oh wow.

(Janie) Um, I worked at the Whitfield Project Office for about a year and that helped pave my way through my education at Mississippi State. I graduated from there in 1999, and I started in the Hattiesburg project office and worked there for about four years and was lucky to be a part of four-laning, uh, 49 redoing it down near the coast. And so, I was lucky to start my career there. And then after I got married and had a kid, I moved back home to my hometown of Brookhaven, Mississippi, and was a project engineer there for several years and worked most of my career in District 7. I served as, uh, started as a project engineer and then I was the resident engineer there in Brookhaven.

Um, and then, uh, I had the opportunity to work as a project engineer up here in District 5 for just a little bit on the, uh, Byram to McDowell Road project on 55, which was a fairly good project there.

(Will) Yeah.

(Janie) And then, um, after that I served as the assistant construction engineer in the district in McComb. Uh, then, uh, changed sides of the house and went to maintenance division. Uh, and actually I worked as a District 7 assistant maintenance engineer for a couple years and then came back to construction and was a district construction engineer up until January of this year. And at that time, I came up here and took the position of the, uh, Assistant Chief Engineer over Field Operations.

(Paul) Wow, that’s all the way around the world.

(Will) I know it! It’s like that line, I think it’s, I’m going to mess this up for you true John Wayne fans out there. I can’t remember if it’s True Grit or Rooster Cogburn, but that old guy at the bridge says, “Been everywhere. Done everything. Seen everything.” You have made some rounds.

(Janie) I have.

(Will) Um, who, now let’s see, so you started off you said over in the Whitfield. Who was your district engineer out there?

(Janie) Um, not sure who the district engineer was at the time, but Albert Saad was the –

(Will) OK.

(Janie) resident that I worked for, and, uh, Brian Ratliff worked there when I was, I was there as well.

(Will) I apologize. Sorry for that.

(Janie) Richard Chisolm, he was an EIT when I was there.

(Will) Oh, lord.

(Janie) Some of the old guys –

(Will) You did have some riffraff.

(Janie) that, that retired from here. Correct.

(Will) What about down in, uh, Hattiesburg? Who, who’d you, who’d you get to know down in Hattiesburg?

(Janie) Um, Steve Tweed was our –

(Will) Yeah.

(Janie) Um, um, construction engineer at the time, and Dave Steele was my project engineer.

(Will) It’s a miracle you stuck around all those people. I’m telling you. Ole Steve Tweed’s down on the coast now.

(Janie) They were all great influences.

(Will) That’s awesome. And then, uh, settled with the rest of the riffraff over in Brookhaven. I’m a Simpson County man, so, uh, long-standing rivalry there with Brookhaven Academy. Don’t know if you guys were Academy folks, or, uh, the public school system over there, but.

(Janie) That is where I graduated from, but my, my children are in the public school system there, so.

(Will) I got you. Yeah, Brookhaven, been there many, many times. Now you said you're, you're born in McComb?

(Janie) I was born in Brookhaven.

(Will) Oh, you were? Okay, I gotcha. And now y’all live out in McComb?

(Janie) No, we live in Brookhaven still.

(Will) Oh, I’m just making stuff up, guys.

(Janie) Yeah, I just used to drive down there as well.

(Will) Just bear with me.

(Janie) Had a commute down to McComb as well from Brookhaven.

(Will) Gotcha. Well, nice. Yeah, yeah, I've been, been all over, got a great opportunity. Uh, how do you think that has helped you in this role? Being able to kind of be in the district offices and see things, um, from that kind of on, boots on the ground perspective and now here sort of running the show.

(Janie) Um, well, due to the fact that, um, I'm actually working over construction and maintenance here and contract administration, um, and materials division, I've actually seen kind of how it affects people out in the field –

(Will) That’s right.

(Janie) and kind of maybe know some of the things that, you know, contractors like to do –

(Will) Yeah.

(Janie) and some, shortfalls in some of our specifications and what's actually helpful.

(Will) Sure.

(Janie) Um, it makes a difference out in the field to get the job done. So –

(Will) No kidding.

(Janie) It's definitely helpful to have come from the field, you know, and then come into an office role.

(Will) Absolutely.

(Janie) For that.

(Will) Two, two quick ones, and I’ll kick it back to you, Paul.

(Paul) Oh, no. Take your time.

(Will) Um, one thing you mentioned, I just wanna make sure we capture that. You talked about when you were an intern, um, and having scholarship assistance? Is that something we still do at MDOT? Can you answer?

(Janie) It's actually something, uh, we do a summer internship program where we allow college students to come and take a job for the summer. Um, but it's not necessarily a scholarship. We just pay them for where they work here.

(Will) Okay.

(Janie) Um, but we are kicking around trying to see if maybe we can get a scholarship program –

(Will) Yeah, either way.

(Janie) back implemented.

(Will) I like a paid internship.

(Paul) Oh, yeah.

(Will) Better than a free one.

(Janie) Oh, it was definitely a paid internship, for sure.

(Will) I love that.

(Paul) No free work.

(Janie) No.

(Paul) No free work.

(Janie) Correct. And this is a great place to work in the summer and learn different things and, you know, really see if this is a place where they would like to move and start their career.

(Will) Yeah, and one thing you've alluded to thus far, and we're about to dive into a little bit, there are so many areas. Yeah. Uh, that you can get in, get involved with here at MDOT and do things, not the least of which is all of the folks, uh, under your umbrella of reporting. And you've, you've kind of given us that list, but, but run through it one more time for us. All of, everything that's under your umbrella.

(Janie) Yeah, Construction Division, Maintenance Division, Materials Division, Contract Administration, and, um, our Heavyweight Permits Division.

(Will) Yeah, so, a little bit of everything, you know.

(Janie) Yes.

(Will) You can find your niche, niche, niche, however you correctly pronounce that word, don’t judge me. Uh, but yeah, a little bit of everything. And Paul, if you want to get into some of those areas for sure.

(Paul) Yeah, sure. No, um, yeah, perfectly teed up by Will. Just kind of what are some of the interesting things kind of going on? You don’t have to hit every single one of them. But what are some of the interesting things going on in some of those areas right now?

(Janie) I think the most interesting thing we've got going on right now is our construction projects. We've been able to redevelop our capacity program.

(Will) Oh, yeah.

(Janie) And, you know, for a little while, we couldn't quite afford to do anything but maintenance. So thankfully, due to our funding opportunities, we've been able to, uh, restart our capacity program right now. So, that's given a lot of people in the field a lot of experience. It's a lot of good, good work, jobs to see. It's definitely making a difference in our communities, uh, expanding and giving them, uh, development opportunities for them –

(Paul) Very nice.

(Janie) as well. And that's, that's one of the most exciting things that we have going on at MDOT. Um, and then, um, you know, technology is continuing to develop. Um, we're starting our digital delivery initiative, which makes everything from paper going into 3-D models building out in the field. And, uh, we're lucky to be, you know, kind of on the forefront, getting in at the beginning of this to help maybe –

(Will) OK.

(Janie) develop and mold the program. Everybody who's working here has had an input on that as well. Um, also one of the, the, the, my favorite things that we're doing right now is our alternative delivery processes.

(Will) Absolutely.

(Paul) Oh, yeah.

(Janie) Um, and say right now we're actually writing our rules and our processes for that. And Jessica is doing an awesome job doing that. Getting those written, but all of us have a little bit input in that. And, and that's one of the most exciting things I think we have going on, we'll be able to deliver projects much faster than we have in the past. Especially for an economic development process or some emergency or something, we'll be able to better, uh, we'll have the tools to deliver those projects.

(Will) And that's even, uh, if I'm not mistaken, I have heard, I think that that process will also, or well, hopefully and, and probably will yield some cheaper, uh, a little better cost efficiencies as well. So maybe quicker and cheaper projects using that alternative delivery. Is that accurate?

(Janie) Yes. We are expecting that.

(Will) Love that.

(Janie) Yes.

(Will) That’s pretty good. Uh, two terms right there. If, if you had to sell a, a, a process or a, a procedure, look, we're gonna do it this way and it's gonna be cheaper and faster.

(Paul) Efficiency.

(Will) Yeah. You know. What's that thing?

(Janie) Correct.

(Will) Everybody wants it cheap, fast, and good. You can only have two. We're going to do all three. Alternative delivery, all three.

(Janie) Well, we were already doing the third one.

(Will) That’s right!

(Janie) We’ve just got to get on board with the first, the cheaper and faster because we were already doing good.

(Will) That’s right. I love that.

(Paul) There we go.

(Will) Absolutely.

(Paul) Let’s, uh, let’s move on uh, interesting subject. So WTS, a lot of people might not know what that is and kind of just women in engineering in general. Uh, I understand that you were involved in this WTS program. What exactly is that for people that don't know?

(Janie) Um, yeah, I was involved a little while back and then I got a little busy, but now that I've moved to Jackson and I'm not, not really drinking out of a fire hose anymore, I am planning to get more involved. Um, it is a group of, uh, just all women in transportation. You don't have to be an engineer. Just if you're interested in and involved with transportation, we meet, do, um, sometimes we do educational stuff and sometimes they set up and just be social. They've played golf before. Um, it's just getting to know other women who are involved in the industry and just making connections and networking.

(Paul) That's awesome. And it's really important to get women involved in engineering. So, um, it seems like there's more and more here at MDOT and kind of just, you know, all over.

(Janie) Yeah. Thanks to, um, you know, people like Melinda McGrath. She was kind of one of the first and people would see her out there and be like, Oh my gosh, there's, there's a lady on the side of the road. Um, she really paved the way for, you know, my generation of people. There were a few, but now it's pretty commonplace. Um, actually, I've got, um, I've got two daughters and one of them just started college, and she's majoring in engineering.

(Will) Oh, nice.

(Janie) And then my other daughter is a junior in high school, and she plans on majoring in engineering.

(Paul) Whoa.

(Will) Very cool.

(Paul) That’s awesome!

(Janie) I've definitely sold it in our household as –

(Will) That’s awesome.

(Janie) an awesome thing to do.

(Paul) Very cool. I got one more question for I guess we didn't ask, why did you want to become an engineer? Like what, what was the impetus of that?

(Janie) Um, my dad, he was, um, he worked in the oil field. And he was a, uh, a diesel mechanic, actually, but he would work his way up to kind of administration.
And his job actually was to, to go around with the engineers that design the oil rigs and make sure they kind of didn't do stupid stuff.

(Paul) Important.

(Janie) So, he talked about engineers all the time, because he was the only person that wasn't an engineer who was actually kind of in oil production that worked with all the engineers, so, um, it just seemed like a, a cool thing to do.

(Will) And the rest is history. Yes. And, and Mississippi State grad, of course, right, we talked about that already.

(Janie) Of course.

(Will) That's alright, everybody can't go to Southern Miss, I get it. You know, it is what it is. We got the full house represented at the table today.

(Paul) Yeah.

(Will) Ole Miss, Southern. I said the full house, there's definitely some other colleges out there. But, uh, Oh, that's awesome. And we're very glad that you did decide to take that career path, for sure.

(Janie) It's been a great career path.

(Will) We are, uh, very happy to see you in here. And again, thanks for coming by and taking some time with us in the studio. We got a couple of fun questions. We want to wrap it up here with you. Um, we're, uh, we like to eat. We like to, uh, listen to music and jam. Uh, so we like to ask our guests a couple of fun questions on those, uh, on those lines. I'll get the first one here. Do you have maybe a favorite musician or maybe even like a favorite concert memory that, that you, the best concert I've ever been to, you know?

(Janie) Um, so, Music is not really my favorite thing.

(Will) That’s okay!

(Paul) All good.

(Janie) The last, the last concerts I've been to, um, the last one I went to with my husband, I think we went for like my 40 something birthday. We went to the George Strait concert.

(Will) There you go!

(Paul) Hey-o!

(Janie) Usually when I listen to music, I'll listen to kind of, I think my music taste sort of ended once I had, I got out of college. So, uh, you know, 90s country and earlier than that. Uh, and then, you know, when I, when I clean, I like to listen to more like 80s rock music.

(Will) Oh, yeah. No, you're spot on.

(Janie) Um, so, but, but I look mainly like, you know, older country and not, not quite today's music.

(Will) I think our Spotify playlist will probably link up pretty well, uh, from everything you just said. I had a birthday about two weeks ago when I walked in the break room here. They had Shania Twain playing for me, so I love me some 90s country. And our, uh, executive producer over here. Mr. Drew Hall is the biggest George Strait fan and these this side of the Mississippi. So, uh, you're, you're, you're very welcome in this department as far as music goes for sure.

(Janie) Awesome. Good deal.

(Paul) That's some good stuff. We all love, we all love country. Even if you maybe didn't think some of the people here like country, we all love country.

(Will) That's right.

(Paul) It's good music.

(Will) That's right.

(Paul) Okay. So, we've got, um, one more question for you. And it's a very important one. The food question, everybody, you might not be a music person, but everybody loves to eat.

(Will) That’s right.

(Janie) Yes.

(Paul) So what if you're traveling around the state, you know, in your job or with your family, or maybe somewhere local, where's your favorite place to get a bite to eat?

(Janie) Normally, here in Jackson, when we go out to eat, just because in Brookhaven, there's, there's no options, but we usually, uh, Amerigo’s is one of my favorites here.

(Paul) OK. Nice.

(Janie) Um, Italian is definitely my favorite. Uh, uh, and then in Brookhaven, uh, we have an awesome developed, like, downtown area that has a lot of local businesses there. Uh, Betty's Eat Shop there is definitely a good place to stop if you're, you're in there. Uh, Magnolia Blues is, is one of my favorite places to eat and they actually have live music there a pretty good amount of nights as well, so.

(Will) That’s perfect.

(Paul) Those are some good options right there. I think this, have you, do you know the chef at, uh, Betty's Eat Shop? It's Matt, I believe is his name. Have you heard of him?

(Janie) I actually used to babysit him.

(Paul) You used to babysit him?

(Will) Small world!

(Paul) I don’t really know him super well, but I had a short stint in the culinary world and worked at a restaurant in Jackson with him, Local 463, for a bit. And I’ve been to Betty’s. It’s fantastic.

(Janie) Yes.

(Paul) It’s great southern, kind of a little more upscale, food, so.

(Janie) Yes. My parents and his parents were friends, so.

(Paul) Wow.

(Will) The world is too small.

(Paul) That’s the Mississippi thing for you right there!

(Janie) Definitely.

(Will) Without getting too far in this rabbit hole, do you remember where they told us, I think it was Matt Dugas, uh, down in the district there at the time, had recommended that place we went and ate?

(Paul) Oh.

(Will) It was like on this, right off the side of the highway almost. As we were coming back towards Jackson. I can't remember the name of it. We'll have to, we'll have to find out.

(Paul) Feels like a million years ago.

(Will) Does that ring a bell at all?

(Janie) Um, I don’t know.

(Will) Is it filling station or something? I can’t remember what it was called.

(Paul) It was good.

(Will) It was very good.

(Paul) It was a hole in the wall kind of place.

(Janie) He knows all the good eat places.

(Will) Every time we go to, every time we get a recommendation from them on where to go eat. We end up seeing them come in the door right behind us. So, yeah, I don't know if he's trying to get us to pick up his meal or what was going on there.

(Paul) There you go.

(Will) Excellent, excellent answers, for sure.

(Paul) No doubt. No doubt. Janie, we, I, you know, you're a very busy woman, lots of stuff going on at MDOT. Thank you so much for stopping by and speaking with us.

(Janie) Thank y’all for having me.

(Paul) So, look, we will go ahead and wrap things up there. Thank you to our listeners, our viewers for tuning into the Extra Mile Podcast. You can watch and listen to episodes by visiting GoMDOT.com/TheExtraMile. Follow us on social media, @MississippiDOT is the handle. We want to thank our editor, our producer, Drew Hall for doing all the technical stuff behind the scenes. And remember to drive smart out there on Mississippi highways.

(Will) Thank you for subscribing to The Extra Mile podcast. Help us out by leaving a review and a five-star rating wherever you download the show. After leaving a review, slide on into our DMs over on social media @MississippiDOT and let us know. As a thank you, we have compiled a Google Map list of all of our guests’ favorite spots to eat on Mississippi Highways. It is our gift to you. Seriously, you guys are the best. We could not do the show without you, and we greatly appreciate the support. Remember, drive smart out there on Mississippi Highways.

[Outro Music]