A regional movement by leaders in several Southwest Mississippicounties to extend Highway 44 across the Pearl River may havebolstered state support for the project after a meeting in JacksonTuesday.

Supervisors from Lawrence, Marion, Walthall and Jefferson Daviscounties, District 39 Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, county engineers andrepresentatives of the Mississippi Department of Transportation metwith members of Gov. Haley Barbour’s staff to encourage statesupport for the project.

“They were very impressed we had support from four countiesthere. It went very well,” Hyde-Smith said. “Hopefully, we’ll seesome results in the near future.”

Bob Smira, director of the Lawrence County Community DevelopmentAssociation, said the group hoped to provide some urgency amongstate leadership.

“The objective was to let the governor’s office know somefunding for the project is available and has been available forquite some time,” he said.

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