MDOT presents The Extra Mile podcast.

(Paul) Welcome into another edition of The Extra Mile podcast presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. I’m MDOT Digital Media Manager Paul Katool. I’m joined by my co-host Will Craft. He handles government and constituent affairs at the agency.

Today we are at the Neshoba County Fair. Very excited to be on location here. A little later in the show we’re gonna talk to State Senator Jenifer Branning. Right now, we’ve got State Representative Scott Bounds. Very excited to talk to him. He of course represents Leake County and Neshoba County. And he is the president of the Neshoba County Fair. We really appreciate you speaking with us today.

(Representative Bounds) Absolutely, Paul. Glad to be here. Will, Good to see you again too. Wednesday of the Neshoba County Fair and we’ve had a great fair up through it started last Friday and runs through this Friday. But it’s been fun. And I’m in a new role.

(Will) Yeah. That’s right. Tell us what you got going on.

(Representative Bounds) Y’all want to get into this right now? We’ll do it.

(Paul) Absolutely. Let’s do it.

(Representative Bounds) Alright. Let’s do this. So, yeah. I’ve been on the board 27 years.

(Will) Oh wow.

(Representative Bounds) Being on this board is like being on the Supreme Court. You either die or you quit, okay? I don’t anybody we’ve ever fired because
(Will) It’s a tough job.

(Representative Bounds) It’s a tough job. And you know even when I was elected president back in October of last year our president at that time retired and the board elected me then at that time to serve as president of the fair and immediately my pay went from zero to zero. Zero to zero.

(Will) It didn’t hurt you, but it doesn’t help much, does it?

(Representative Bounds) Nah. But no, it’s something. I grew up here in Neshoba County coming to the fair all my life. My family has three different cabins here on the campgrounds. So, that’s my brothers and everybody else. But yeah so, the fair’s really you’ve gotta have a passion to do this thing. And I’m not clapping myself on the back or glad handing anybody but the board is totally volunteer. We really are.

We have a great staff out here that is paid but as far as the board it makes the policy decisions and implements the policies and directs our staff on what to do. We’re all volunteers. They have the same passion for the fair as I do. And a lot of them are I’m not gonna call them legacies but a lot of their fathers or grandfathers or whatever served. So, they have a lot of institutional knowledge of the fair also, okay? So, but yeah the fair is unique obviously. The last remaining campground fair in America.

(Will) Yeah. For the folks who may not be familiar at all with what the Neshoba County Fair is maybe give us a little synopsis of what goes on here.

(Representative Bounds) Yeah. Well, I guess let’s go back a 133 years when it started in 1899. And it started as just a one day or really just a half a day agricultural type thing. There’s local farmers around here decided they want to get together, and they got together right here on Founder’s Square. We got together right here on Founder’s Square. And they came down here for half a day and they showed crops. And the women showed the quilts they’d made and everything else. And they said, “Hey. This is pretty cool. We’ll do this come back next year.” Well, they come back in ‘89 and did it again. Then they come back in 1891 and it was they made it a full day. And then it went about six years and they said, “You know what? We bring our wagons . We stay in our wagon and sleep under our wagon and everything else and make it two days.”

(Will) I’ve never heard this part.

(Representative Bounds) So now it’s eight days. And we don’t sleep under our wagons anymore. I’m sure there’s a lot of people who sleep under their cabins but I’m not going to go there. But it really is it was founded I mean founding fathers started it as just a way to display the community agricultural aspect of this community which is called the cold-water community here in Neshoba County. And so, it just grew from there. They began to get they’d get a band to come in and play for one night or they’d then you know they’d invite the governor and then you know the governor started coming. Then political speakers started coming. So, it’s just for a 133 years it’s evolved.

(Will) It’s huge.

(Paul) Absolutely.

(Representative Bounds) There was one year in World War I I don’t remember that the fair was not held. And obviously, it was not held in ‘42, ‘43, ‘44 or ‘45 for World War II. And then it was not held in 2020 for Covid.

And I’ll never forget the night that we met down here as a board. We met right over there at the pavilion. And we came here at five o’clock and we sit here until eight o’clock and just deliberated and discussed what were we going to do. Were we going to let this pandemic shut down this institution of the Neshoba County Fair for a year.

And you know there’s been a lot learned about pandemic and all since then. You know we would have made a difference decision if we’d been armed with the knowledge we have now about the pandemic that we didn’t have then. But we made the decision to not have the fair that year. And as was there was a lot of things that changed in 2020. Football games changed. A lot of things changed. But came back last year. Had one of the biggest fairs on record and this one is on pace to be very successful.

(Will) That’s awesome.

(Paul) That’s excellent. You mentioned a little bit, but the Neshoba County Fair is very synonymous with politics. There’s the retail kind of element to it. Can you kind of talk about that part of the fair?

(Representative Bounds) Yeah. So, we’re in a uh this is 2022. Next year is an election year. So, we sort of we don’t run the fair on four-year cycles, but we look at our financials and everything else at a four-year window, okay? In other words, I’m looking today what did we do in 2018 the year before 2019 which was an election year.

(Will) Right.

(Representative Bounds) Where are we at on ticket sales? Where are we at our finances? Where are we at on attendance? And it’s it’s we have learned through the years that we can follow this four-year election cycle engage just about every year whether attendance is gonna be the same or up or down or whatever. I mean we can only forecast it but it’s it stays pretty steady.

(Will) What about the you are speaking of all the people coming in the logistics. Does the parking area out here it just it blows my mind every time we pull up you know long before you actually get to the fairgrounds you start seeing people parked you know everywhere they can get.

(Representative Bounds) Yeah.

(Will) I’m sure that’s a bit difficult to navigate and making sure folks are where they’re supposed to be.

(Representative Bounds) Well, well it is but now I know y’ all are MDOT so I’m gonna give y’ all a shoutout but I especially want to give a shoutout to the district six engineering office and Neil Patterson and his staff.

(Will) Absolutely.

(Paul) Oh yeah.

(Representative Bounds) They work with us tremendously on signage far as you know pedestrian won’t crossing warnings and things like that. To be able to pick up the phone and say, “Hey, Neil, you know the fair’s coming up.” And he’ll say, “Hey, man, we got you covered. We know what to do.” And your crews do a fantastic job of keeping the right-of ways cut prior to the fair, trash picked up, things like that. And I’m just telling you that y’all do.

(Will) I appreciate it.

(Representative Bounds) They do a great job and, but you know, yes, you’re right, Will. I mean coming into the fair, you’ve got people parked on your right of way you know and things like that for you know a half mile one way and a half mile the other way. And but y’all are good partners with us and in pedestrian control and things like that, so we really appreciate it. But yeah. You see more of that half mile parking either way at night you know nightly entertainment and things like that.

Election years next year will be a this look this is just a little baby. To let you know politics this year we’ve got two hours of speaking this morning, two hours tomorrow morning. Next year we’ll have morning, noon, no, we’ll have morning afternoon, morning speaking, afternoon speaking on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I mean with all the candidates and everything else. We’ll we’ll go from 18 people speaking this year to seventy people speaking next year.

(Paul) Oh wow.

(Will) How many attendance folks you think you got this year?

(Representative Bounds) So, we get asked that about that a lot. We average now and you got to keep in mind that there’s not that many people on the ground, this many people at any one time, okay? We average about 30,000 in ticket sales, okay, through the course of the week on the grounds at any one time in the 601 cabins and 578 camper spots we have. We estimate at any one time there’s probably eight to 10 thousand people on the grounds in the cabins and everything.

But here’s what you got to remember. We can’t get an accurate number and I’ll tell you why. Even though we can know how many tickets we sell, we don’t charge kids 10 and under to come to the fair, okay? We don’t charge kids 10 and under to come to the fair. So, you can look out anywhere out here and you can see how many kids are 10 and under. So, I don’t know how much they add to the population.

(Paul) Yeah.

(Will) It’s definitely a kid-friendly environment. Bring your family out.

(Representative Bounds) It’s definitely a kid-friendly environment you know it’s like unfortunately y’ all it’s gotten it’s like any other place now and you got to use common sense, okay? It’s it’s still though a safe venue for kids. And you know you can’t leave your car out in the parking lot and leave the door unlocked.

(Will) Sure. That’s right.

(Representative Bounds) I mean it’s just you know you got to remember that even though we’re um it is the fair is what it is it’s still now right now it’s like a small city. It’s ten thousand people out here and it’s going to have small city issues, you know.

(Will) Absolutely.

(Representative Bounds) And uh so but anyway we work through them, and we make them. We got an outstanding security contractor, and they do a great job in maintaining order. And I will tell you the shift that worked from six at night to seven in the morning, I wouldn’t wanna, I wouldn’t want their job.

(Paul) Well shout out shout out to them.

(Representative Bounds) Absolutely.

(Paul) Yes, sir. About to wrap things up. We do want to talk a little bit of transportation. Maybe talk about the emergency bridge and road and repair fund. What has that done for rural Mississippi and other communities?

(Representative Bounds) Yeah. Yeah. That fund the emergency road and bridge on especially for people like me that represent rural areas and have real constituencies uh I mean that’s just I mean that is that’s land yap on top of everything else MDOT does for us on the state systems and everything. And I know the supervisors that come to us every year and lobby the legislature lobby us you know they’re they’re focused on that emergency road and bridge money.
And you know they worry about the farm to market roads and things like that.

But that emergency road and bridge money that impacts people out in the rural districts to have a bridge between them and the grocery store or a bridge that needs to be able to carry a school bus their children to school. And uh so that emergency road and bridge fund uh the legislature sometimes we have to lick our cap over sometimes. We don’t do good things but I’m going to tell you this is one thing when the emergency road and bridge fund was established, and we got MDOT’s buy-in on it on what we were going to do it’s a game changer for rural transportation infrastructure.

(Paul) That’s awesome. Awesome.

(Will) That’s been great. I’ll take us home here. Last question for you. Getting very Neshoba specific is there a meal or maybe one that you prepare or one that your family does that you just this is the you know the highlight of the fair for you? What is your fair go-to food?

(Representative Bounds) Well

(Will) You think about it. That’s a good question.

(Representative Bounds) We talking like at the midway or at my cabin? Do you want me to do both of them?

(Will) Yeah. Absolutely.

(Representative Bounds) Well there’s nothing like a big old greasy corn dog.

(Paul) Oh yeah. I love it.

(Will) We had some pizza earlier, so we caught you on the grease department.

(Paul) We love grease.

(Representative Bounds) Yeah. But on Friday night my family and I uh and my in-laws at our cabin uh I fry catfish and I always make it a point we don’t do anything, but Mississippi farm raised catfish.

(Paul) Oh yeah.

(Will) There you go.

(Paul) Oh yeah.

(Representative Bounds) We don’t buy this stuff that raised in the pond overseas and all that kind of stuff. We don’t do that. So, uh probably my favorite meal is the fried catfish that we do. Did you notice that I said fried corn dog, fried catfish? I mean you know.

(Will) I’m here for it.

(Paul) We love it. We love it. We love it.

(Representative Bounds) Hey. We can get back on our exercise regimen after the fair.

(Will) That’s right. That’s nice if we had one. If you don’t

(Paul) Forget about it. Well, Representative Bounds, we really appreciate

(Representative Bounds) Yeah.

(Paul) a great insightful conversation. Thanks for having us making this happen so we could be here today.

(Representative Bounds) Absolutely. Appreciate y’ all the work y’ all are doing and um obviously y’ all are welcome out here anytime and we look forward to uh working with y’ all in the coming session.

(Will) When we get back to Jackson we’ll certainly have to get you to come by the podcast studio there and do a kind of a follow-up episode sometime.

(Representative Bounds) I would love to. I’d love to. Thank you.

(Break)

(Paul) What you just heard was MDOT central district Commissioner Willie Simmons giving his speech at the Neshoba County Fair. Thank you for staying with us and we are now joined by State Senator Jenifer Branning a repeat guest on the podcast. She represents Leake and Winston Counties and of course Neshoba County at the Neshoba County Fair. And uh very relevant to MDOT she is the chair of the highways and transportation committee uh in the state senate and we really appreciate you joining us here today.

(Senator Branning) Thank you for having me on. I’ve been looking forward to it.

(Paul) Thank you so much.

(Will) We got the uh got the access up here to the second floor, so we got a little overlooked spot going on here but uh got a little bit of a breeze. We’re cooling off finally found some shade. Well, how’s it going? Enjoying the fair this year?

(Senator Branning) Everything has been great this year. You know the fair is always hot. We can always plan on that. But it just seems like this morning we’ve had a little bit of a breeze, a little bit nicer than usual so, we’ll take it.

(Will) That’s right. Yeah. I somehow managed to keep finding the sunspots and avoiding the shade. I don’t know if that’s a curse or what’s going on. But well and gave a great speech this morning.

(Senator Branning) Thank you.

(Will) Talked about a laundry list of things and especially the stuff that went on this past legislative session. It was obviously a very successful session. We’ve talked about that a good bit on the podcast and otherwise but any highlights you wanted to mention just from this past year?

(Senator Branning) Yeah. So, well as you guys know we worked really hard on MDOT’s budget. We had a little extra money to work with and we wanted to be sure that we were plugging it into the right places. And I spent a great deal of time working with Director Brad White who is doing a tremendous job. And he spent a lot of time educating me on how the federal program works because as a new chairman it’s just a big ball of wax, a lot of moving parts. And so, I’ve done my homework to try to get up to speed.

But taking all that into account you know we created a budget that provided some flexibility uh plug some extra dollars into the paving program into capacity. And now we want to look forward to the future and hopefully find a steady revenue stream. Really I’m looking at capacity for the future. You know, I know it’s hard to plan year to year when the agency is not sure what will be coming their way by way of state revenue additional dollars. And so, I want to try to find a solution for that.

(Will) And I know that will certainly be at the forefront probably this coming up session? Maybe you know, I know it’s a big election year next year coming up so maybe in the next one depending upon what that conversation looks like. But I you know I would I’m gonna leave that with you the brilliant minds over there to figure out because I did not know the answer either.

(Paul) So that the session really feels like it just wrapped up, but I’ve got to imagine you all are already working heavily to prepare for the next one, right?

(Senator Branning) That’s right. Already doing some research talking to people as you mentioned experts. I have to include people much smarter than myself when we’re talking about the numbers game. We’ve got to make sure that whatever we do going forward that we take into account the fact that our economy will not always be what it is this year. So, I am working to come up with some solutions, planning some hearings for later in the fall. We don’t have a definite date set so that all of those minds can come together, and we can look at what our options are going forward.

(Paul) No doubt. And we truly at MDOT we really appreciate all the work that uh that you and your colleagues do. Taking it back to the fair a little bit. Can you talk about I know this is Neshoba County this is your county so do you have any favorite memories here at the fair or anything you want to touch on?

(Senator Branning) You know, I grew up here. I was born in 1979 and I remember when I well let me back up and say I don’t remember it. I was one when Reagan came to the fair. I’ve heard it talked about so many times. I feel like I do have a memory of it but it’s more hearing that people talk about it.

You know, I was raised coming here every year as my parents would prepare the cabin. We have a family cabin No. 106. They’ve had it for years and years and years and so as a small child I would come and play under the pavilion in the sawdust as my parents worked and got the cabin ready. And so, all I know is coming to the fair all of my life. Now it is what you make it. Growing up my favorite part was you know the rides, the Ferris wheel, the food, the funnel cakes, the lemonade.

As I have gotten older I appreciate the flea market and simply just porch time. Time with my family at the cabin, catching up with my aunts, my sister, my mom, sort of a family reunion style you know. And so, we really enjoy it. It makes us come together as a family just spend good quality time together before we go back to our busy lives and school and those sorts of things.

(Paul) Excellent.

(Will) I feel like you know and that’s it is you know a political event but maybe even more, so it is that family what is the phrase that’s the biggest house party or Mississippi

(Senator Branning) Mississippi’s Giant House Party. That’s right.

(Will) And it’s very true. I mean you come out here, I know you can see some of these porches. It is all about front porch sitting.

(Senator Branning) Absolutely.

(Will) You just walk by, and somebody offer you lemonade or some tea or whatever it may be. May have never them before but it’s a very community family you know type event out here. And you just mentioned too I don’t know if we talked about this in the first segment but there is the fair rides, right?

(Senator Branning) Absolutely.

(Will) They’ve got the tracks you know, we’ve got the horse races.

(Senator Branning) The horse race is a lot of fun to go over there and see that if you have not seen it. The pageant is one of my favorite things. Grace Maxie won the title this year. I’m so happy and so proud for Grace and her family. Such a fine young lady. I did participate in the pageant back in 199-something. Did not win, placed top 10 but great experience. I enjoyed it. I learned a lot from it. It helped me build some confidence maybe in doing some things that I do now. So, a lot of things a lot of good things that go on out here. So, I’m happy that this happens in my home county. I’m happy to be a part of it.

(Will) There is so much. Maybe swinging back to transportation but we had a frisbee uh coming for a second.

(Paul) That was awesome.

(Will) Lots of projects going on around right now. Any big projects maybe coming up or ongoing?

(Senator Branning) Well, Highway 19 has been a major project for us here in Neshoba County. And something that we’ve been working on well before my time in the senate Senator Ward before me you know he’ll work to try to secure some funding for that. And it’s in the works now and so pretty soon we’re going to see the end result. And we are just thrilled as a community you know, we’re one of the few if not the only county in the central part of the state without foreign access. So, we’re happy that that is working out for us.

You’ll notice last year actually Highway 21 coming into the fair was resurfaced. There was a paving project there with some of the lottery proceeds. So, we’re seeing the results here in the central part of the state. The good work that’s being done by MDOT, by the commission. I think Commissioner Simmons he’s doing a great job paying close attention to the rural part of the state which is right here. This is one of the most rural parts of his district and so we do appreciate him for that, you know.

But the Emergency Road and Bridge Fund is one thing that I’m very fond of. I think that program works really nicely. And of the money that we appropriated last year as you guys know a hundred million goes into that into that fund. And so, it’s to benefit communities just like this one. With the critical infrastructure I think one of my goals has been to go out there and identify where are the critical needs, grab them, let’s fix them, get them fixed repaired and let’s move on to something else.

You know 2017 I believe was when the state of emergency was declared for some of the bridge work and whatnot. And from that point forward which I was still very new in the legislature was not even on the transportation committee. But it seems like we sort of shifted into another gear as far as transportation goes. The emergency road and bridge fund was formed in the special session of eighteen.

We begin to do some different things a lottery and there’s so it’s coming together. I think the world transportation interstate is improving greatly but we have an opportunity before us right now with the additional revenue that we have I realize that may not always be the case, but I think we need to be smart with what we have and see how we can make it work for us in transportation.

(Paul) Excellent. Excellent. So, we had Representative Bounds on earlier and I know you both represent Neshoba County so

(Senator Branning) Yes.

(Paul) in different chambers but how do you two, how do you two kind of work hand in hand to advance interest you know transportation and other interests?

(Senator Branning) Well Representative Bounds does a phenomenal job for Neshoba County. He’s been serving I believe he’s in his fifth term, so he’s been doing it a long time. And there is a reason people keep sending him back. He’s doing a good job.

So, when I was elected we made an agreement that look we’re going to work together. We may not always agree. On policy I would say we agree 99 percent of the time. We may not always agree on approach, but we always sit down and say okay how you know our community needs xyz. How do we get this done? And we don’t look at it as we’re in competing chambers.
You know some people take that approach it’s house versus senate. It’s not like that or um that’s not been my experience. Representative Bounds has been very good to sit down with me. We worked together. We tried to formulate a plan and we executed it. And we’ve been very successful in bringing projects home to our county. So, it’s been a pleasure to work with him.

(Paul) That’s good to hear. That’s good to hear.

(Will) You mentioned all the activities from that special session uh lottery, merch so, that was my first month at MDOT. So, I agree gears definitely changed because I was all of a sudden in the think of all these new programs and drinking from the fire hose probably similar to yours.

(Senator Branning) That’s right.

(Will) Just kind of circling back again to the fair a little bit you know this is a question that I know we asked you in a little different terms’ way back in January but uh food we all love to eat.

(Senator Branning) Oh yeah.

(Paul) Great question.

(Will) Representative Bounds piled on about the fried uh varieties that are around here. Do you have a favorite and does your family cook one night or something a special night.

(Senator Branning) Yes. I’ll be glad to talk to you about food. I am a foodie, okay? You gotta have a funnel cake from the midway.

(Will) Yeah.

(Senator Branning) And you have to polish it off with some lemonade.

(Will) Yep.

(Senator Branning) You must do that before you leave the Neshoba County Fair.

(Will) It’s got to be a 22 ouncer.

(Senator Branning) That’s exactly right. Now what we do at our cabin we usually have a different meal each night. We have a Mexican night. We have a steak night. We barbeque night things like that. My favorite is on Saturday. We do kind of a potluck on Saturday. We do the home cooking type thing. My mom always does butter beans. We might have cornbread that kind of thing.

But one thing that stands out from my childhood is my mom makes these what we call brownie muffins. It’s a brownie and a muffin in one and it’s the best thing you’ll ever eat. She’s been making them since I was a small child so it’s a tradition. She makes them every fair. And the kids now my kids just go crazy over them.

(Will) And that was cabin 106?

(Senator Branning) 106. You can go there with me when we’re done.

(Will) And make sure we remember that. Yeah. That’s pretty interesting. I think everybody I feel like everybody kind of has a specialty uh you know whatever cabin and family.

(Senator Branning) Well, it’s tradition. You know, you establish tradition with family and it’s just very enjoyable. So, yeah.

(Paul) Absolutely. Well, Senator Branning, we really appreciate you talking to us today. Really packed a lot of information in ten minutes or so. It’s very exciting to hear kind of what’s on the horizon for transportation. Thank you so much for joining us.

(Senator Branning) Thank you for having me. I’ve enjoyed being here.

(Paul) Alright. Alright. So, we’ll go ahead and wrap things up on The Extra Mile podcast. Thank you out there to all our listeners for joining us. You can watch and listen to shows wherever podcasts can be found. Uh you can go to gomdot.com forward slash the extra mile. Be sure to follow us on social media uh Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. The handle there is @MississippiDOT. Uh before we get out of here we’ll give a shout-out to Drew Hall our editor, our producer Katey Hornsby. And of course we’ll close out with the tagline remember to drive smart out there on Mississippi highways.