Former District 4 Supervisor Bill Lauderdale will run for his old seat on the Warren County Board of Supervisors in 2007, making the decision official after months of speculation.

&#8220I know I can do a better job because I have better experience,” Lauderdale said Tuesday.

The four-term former supervisor, an independent, had given strong indications to friends and confidants since midsummer that he would run, but opted not to make a firm decision until he could notify incumbent Carl Flanders.

&#8220I’ve talked to Carl to tell him,” said Lauderdale, 59, who has worked as a special agent with the Mississippi State Tax Commission since his surprising 189-vote loss to the upstart Flanders in 2003.

&#8220I know I can be more effective and get things done,” he said.

For his part, Flanders, who had left open the possibility of running either for re-election in the southeastern Warren County district or for Chancery or Circuit Clerk, firmed up his intentions Tuesday.

&#8220I will only consider running for a clerk’s position should there be an open seat. Likely, I will run for supervisor, thus giving the voters a clear choice: progress or returning to the status quo,” Flanders said.

The deadline for filing qualifying papers is March 1, 2007.

Unlike Flanders, who has tried to reshape the structure of county government from shuffling board-appointed positions to proposing new ordinances, Lauderdale, a third-generation Warren County resident, implied he would help return a more deliberative style to the board, using his roots in the community as a reference point.

&#8220I’ve lived here all my life. Warren County has been good to us,” he said.

Lauderdale’s decision to run sets up what could be the most competitive race when the current board comes up for re-election a year from now.

Flanders has been the most outspoken member of the county-governing board and has grown more so since his election as board president in January.

While his supporters credit him for keeping in touch with constituents on a &#8220grass-roots” level – he is the only supervisor who holds yearly town hall-styled meetings to discuss topics of county business – his detractors are numerous as well.

Since elected, Flanders has been a guiding force behind moves to change the county’s hiring policy to look beyond specific departments and, in the only move to have continued board support, update Warren County’s subdivision ordinance directing developers to build new roads and install drainage that will meet minimal standards.

Other measures, such as hiring a tow company to haul junk cars and enacting property maintenance standards that mirror the International Property Maintenance Code, have not been brought up for a vote.

However, his determined effort to retool the emergency management agency and its building permit department proved counterproductive.

E-911 Dispatch Center director Geoffrey Greetham was given the directorship of emergency management on an interim basis, but took his name out of consideration for it when other board members favored a full-time director of the agency that is the point of contact for federal and state authorities during emergencies.

Former agency planner Gwen Coleman was named to the post in September.

Lauderdale did not address those issues when asked what measures he would push for if elected, choosing to talk briefly about the future of the county-owned U.S. 80 bridge across the Mississippi River.

Flanders has been a supporter of efforts to place a pedestrian park and bike path atop the closed roadbed.

&#8220We’ve got foundation problems on that and on Interstate 20. Until that’s addressed, (the bridge park) will be very difficult,” Lauderdale said.

The largely ceremonial post of board president should be elected each January, Lauderdale said, and not rotated.

Though Flanders was elected president, a job that consists of handling the gavel to run formal meetings and represent the board at speaking engagements, it kept an unwritten rotation in effect, with the other tenured supervisors each having served in the post at least once in the past five years.

Although much of District 4 territory lies outside the city limits of Vicksburg, the bulk of its population lives within it.

District 4’s municipal areas extend north to Interstate 20 and include areas just south of Pemberton Square Boulevard and west of Bazinsky Road. Its eastern boundary is the corridor where Halls Ferry turns to Fisher Ferry, then forks off to include Ross Road.

District 4 also includes Davis Island, a rich timber-growing area on the western side of the Mississippi River surrounded on the other three sides by Louisiana.