The Simpson County Board of Supervisors took care of several items of county business at their recessed meeting on February 18.
Chancery Clerk Tim Gray presented a Simpson County Public School 16th section farm residential lease for Rhonda Little Runnels.
Sheriff Paul Mullins presented personnel moves for Hunter Hemphill Kendarious Rogers, Shawn Scott and Michael Schuler as fulltime certified hires for the jail. He also announced that the JAG Grant will be used to purchase laptops for patrol vehicles at a cost of $9,508.
The board approved their sponsor pledge agreement to Simpson County Distinguished Young Women in the amount of $150. The board approved the two requests by Old Pearl Fire Department regarding House Bill 603. Requests were approved to use $3,500 of HB 603 funds for Old Pearl’s portion for the purchase of a 2025 tanker. Old Pearl will receive the remaining balance of $11,500.
The board agreed to readvertise for bids on a chip spreader for the Road Department. Bids will be due by March 4 at 9 a.m.
A bid from L & D Trucking and Scrap for the sale of surplus county vehicles was accepted.
Road assistant Jeremy Bolton updated the board on the solid waste refuse trailer and day cab, saying the equipment is expected on March 17. Board approval was given to extend the rental on the bucket truck at the state contracting price of $5,150.
OSARC mailboxes and roadside safety regulations were discussed. Bolton said the policy has changed and the county has the right to remove mailboxes if deemed necessary. Bolton said all roadways must be cleared of hazardous mailboxes. Violations include cement and brick mail boxes, large post, and mail-boxes being too close to the road. Bolton said the mailboxes that do not meet regulations must be re-moved and replaced.
Bolton discussed a grant opportunity with SS4A (Safe Streets and Roads For All). He said that approximately one billion dollars available in grant money available to municipalities and counties. Two caveats for the grant are safety and to enhance economic development.
Approval was given by the board to declare surplus as the following non inventories items to be sold at auction.
Greg Bonds informed the board of notice that bridges ratings have been lowered in the county. Bonds asked the board if they wanted him to inspect the bridges and see what rehab could be done to improve the ratings. Chapel Bridge on Robert Bush Road and Bride 101 on Coats Road were included in the low-ered ratings. They are using load rating testing, inspections, and other data to determine the rating. Donny Welch was not opposed to beginning work immediately once notice is given that a bridges rating is decreased. The board unanimously approved to allow Bonds to begin engineering work.
Bonds said MDOT will be replacing bridges on Highway 28 this summer. It will detour local traffic onto roads that have been beaten up and have three bridges in need of rehab. There is a grant opportunity through MDOT with the Competitive Highway Bridge Program. Bonds asked the board for authorization to explore the grant for funds to repair the bridges.
Supervisor Donny Welch said his biggest concern is emergency response from the bridges outages on Highway 28. He said this outage would put ambulance and fire services driving way out the way to re-spond to calls in the area. The board approved Bonds to move forward with the grant.
Bonds closed his report with an update on the damage on Poplar Springs Road.
The board approved the purchase of a flip tarp system to be installed on the refuse trailer and ratified the purchase of miscellaneous plastic culverts.
The service agreement between the Simpson County Economic Development District and Simpson County Development Foundation received board approval.
Board Attorney Danny Welch updated the board on a class action suit against Cintas out of the City of Laurel. Notice of a settlement where they overpriced municipalities and other government entities. The County has until April to decide if they want to join the suit. Welch plans to research the contract and report to the board.
The jail food service contract with Summit went up 6 percent and the Sheriff’s Department presented the contract for renewal. The increase was due to inflation. Their employees cook the food at the jail for the inmates. The board saw that it would be a 12-cent increase per meal. The Sheriff has been pleased with the service and the board approved extending the contract until February of 2026.
Emergency Management Coordinator John Kilpatrick said the training coordinator recently had a meeting and they are still looking for more volunteers. The training classes meet once a month and are working to establish volunteer groups in each fire district. Still looking for more volunteers at the volun-teer fire departments. Each fire district will serve as a community and reach out to churches to help plan for 72 hours of emergency management.
Kilpatrick said the Fire Association meeting discussed burning structures for training. Kilpatrick said the fire department does not want to set fire to structures in the county. Board added no structure fires to the minutes, and Attorney Danny Welch will research language that supports the fire department’s po-sition.
Kilpatrick said there is an upcoming update to the 911 system that will allow the county to operate in-dependently. Kilpatrick said there are grant opportunities available for the fire departments. He said the county grant writer needs a memorandum of understanding between the county and municipalities to pursue these grants. The board agreed to move forward.
Building Director Daniel Ferguson discussed homeowner certification compliance. If a homeowner is do-ing their own build, there is a provision in place for homeowners to do what they need to do. The office is open and any questions can be directed to 601-675-2366. The board approved implementing the homeowner certification on mobile homes and new homes. Donny Welch clarified that this has nothing to do with dog pins, chicken houses, sheds, barns, or anything else. Ferguson said this deals with resi-dency mobile homes and new homes. It is not going to reach across the lines of chicken houses and farm use.
Donny Welch discussed the Bridge over Pearl River should be finished by the end of April. The board dis-cussed the impact of the bridge closures on local businesses before entering executive session.
The board entered executive session to discuss litigation before adjourning the meeting.
