A special thanks to those of you who have worked with the Mississippi Damage Prevention Committee (MDPC). Much of the legislative success we’ve experienced is the result of your willingness to work through difficult issues, your feedback, and your commitment to finding the common ground necessary to take a unanimous draft proposal to our legislature through our lobbyist, Sandy Sanford.
2025 has started off at a fast pace and has picked up speed along the way. The Mississippi Legislature passed all proposed legislation submitted by the MDPC. To take a closer look at HB1191, click on the QR code found on page xx.
I would like to focus for a moment on just one of the topics addressed in HB1191. It is the highly discussed issue of how best to handle a large project. This is a topic being discussed across the country and over the
past couple of years in Mississippi. Honestly, we were unable to adequately define what a large project is. We were also unable to determine the best process for managing the project. The MDPC agreed to include the concept of managing large projects in our dig law. But rather try to enforce compliance on something that our stakeholders weren’t able to agree upon, we agreed to make it voluntary to learn more about what would work best for Mississippi.
We were fortunate in that we were able to turn the notes from our meetings to our very own Amanda Russell. From these notes and much discussion about the process, she outlined a basis and a timeline for the large project ticket in Mississippi, and we determined this would be the starting point for case studies throughout the next couple of years. The voluntary large project ticket goes into effect on July 1, 2025, as does HB1191. As it relates to the large project ticket, we’ve agreed to set up a monthly meeting within the MDPC to discuss lessons learned from those instances where the large project process is utilized across the state.
The first meeting was to take place in May to familiarize our committee with the basic plan and to learn how to evaluate the process once it goes into effect. In the spirit of transparency, it is our intention to share with our stakeholders in Mississippi what we learn to gain additional feedback to prepare us for the time when a large project process is mandatory in Mississippi. Finally, let me encourage all of you to continue to work together to make Mississippi a safer place to live and work!