Its environmental permits in hand from the state, developers of a tire recycling plant in Redwood still face tall odds in securing a public rail crossing to reach the property. In development stages for about four years, Vicksburg International Tire Recycling Inc. will accept waste tires on property located in the 6900 block of U.S. 61 North, about two miles south of Mississippi 3.

Tires would be stored temporarily, then shredded for recycling.

The 12.3-acre site has access problems, as a rail line runs directly through it.

Permission to link a crossing from a currently private road to state-maintained 61 would have to precede an application to Kansas City Southern Railway, said Carl Mangrum, a Greenville-based construction company executive and key planner of the tire plant.

Such an application would come with an $8,000 application fee from the railroad, one that supervisors are not authorized to foot without local and private legislation.

Warren County supervisors indicated the county, as the local government entity, would apply to the Mississippi Department of Transportation. However, more substantive talks with KCS officials would resolve the problem of access.

VITRI was issued tire-processing and stormwater permits in July from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.