Residents near the Oktibbeha county lake dam voice concerns over the dam's safety

People living near the Oktibbeha County Lake dam voiced their concerns about the dam's safety during a meeting on Monday night.

Near the oktibbeha county lake dam voiced their concerns about the dam's safety during a meeting tonight.

Wtva's sydney darden is live in downtown starkville with an update on how county supervisors plan to move forward.

County supervisor marvell howard told everyone at the meeting tonight that the mississippi department of environmental quality deemed the dam unsafe for the last four years.

Those who live nearby filled the city council room to ask one simple question: what's the holdup with fixing the dam?

Take pkg sot lora hogan, lives near oktibbeha county lake- "you got 200 people, 200 homes and you're not willing to give up your money for that?

Shame on you" disapproval and disappointment on the faces of the people living near the oktibbeha county lake dam nats people yelling ""order!"

Tonight they filled the oktibbeha court house to voice their concerns about how the city plans to fix the dam.

Sot lora hogan- " you have to realize people's lives are at stake."

Lora hogan has been living near the oktibbeha county lake for more than four decades and says her house would be one of the first to go if the dam ever failed.

Sot- lora hogan- "it's constant fear everyday because you dont know how long t's going to hold.

County supervisor marvell howard says he understands and explains that the mississippi department of environmental quality has ordered the county to fix the dam...not the lake.

Sot marvell howard- "water or no water, the dam is unsafe.

A project that would cost the county roughly four million dollars.

Howard says the county is exploring several options to fund the project without raising taxes.

One plan could involve taking out high interest state and federal loans.

Another way would be using 2 million dollars leftover from the county's state aid funds.

And pulling the other half of the money from other projects around the county.

But county supervisors posed one question: sot - "whether it comes from the road, brides of general fund budget, are you citizens okay with that?'

Many say the decision is easy.

Sot rhonda mobley, live near oktibbeha county lake dam - "how hard is it to see which one outweighs the other?

You know, lives are in danger.

Howard and the board of supervisors are still exploring different ways to fund fixing the dam.

But howard says they still dont have a concrete plan in place and don't have a timeline for when the board of supervisors will have an answer.

Live in oktibbeha county, sydney darden wtva 9 news.

And we've been covering the dam for quite some