Those with an opinion on what rural transportation needs are in Covington County are urged to attend next week’s Southeast Alabama Rural Planning Organization meeting.

Andrew Windham, regional planner, said the meetings, which are held at various locations throughout the state, are designed to gather information on desired products, such as new striping along roadways or the possibility of adding new traffic lights, and then relay that information to the Alabama Depa-rtment of Transpo-rtation for planning purposes.

“This meeting will give citizens a chance to voice their concerns about rural transportation needs such as safety issues and road maintenance,” Windham said. “Our goal is to collect comments from citizens to policy makers and relay them to the ALDOT.”

Windham said the public’s comments will be discussed in a meeting with the county engineers, which is called a technical committee meeting. Then, the product of that meeting is relayed to the policy committee, consisting of the area’s municipal mayors and county commissioners.

The meeting is set for Jan. 9 at 3 p.m. in the county administration office.

Participants will review statewide transportation improvement plan, with a discussion and update of ongoing transportation projects in region planned.

Windham said the meeting will then end in an open forum where citizens can discuss their concerns and complaints.