Evelyn Copeland, long-time leader of Keep Simpson County Beautiful, appeared before the Simpson County Board of Supervisors last week to officially resign as head of the organization.
The new leadership is Kat McMillan as director and Terrence Norwood as president of the Simpson County Chapter.
According to Copeland, the chapter has come a long way since it was formed in 1986 with 10 members, who pitched in $10 each. Copeland said she is leaving them with approximately $3,000 in the bank.
She said that over the years KSCB has benefitted greatly with help from the community and has received probably $500,000 in grants for the program’s projects.
Copeland said the county had supported community-wide cleanup programs, and the next scheduled date is set for April 10, 2021. She added that county leadership has also been extremely helpful with the cleanup of dumpsites where refuse is being illegally dumped on private and public property.
Copeland expressed regret at the thousands of daffodils and day lilies that were planted in Simpson County only to be mowed down.
In other business, the board approved the hiring of three new personnel in the Road Department. Ralph Kerse was hired as a general laborer and Wayne Whitehead and Paul Robbins were hired as drivers. Both have commercial licenses.
An ASAP ambulance service representative reported to the board that Covid-19 has impacted the ability to place patients in the state’s hospitals. Currently, no rooms are available for virus patients in the state, and one patient was taken to Kentucky and one to Illinois by another provider in the state.
The City of Magee has requested access to the transfer station on Fridays so they could rid themselves of garbage that was collected in the city on Friday. The transfer station is currently open four days a week, Monday through Thursday. The city asked supervisors for access as well as the use of county equipment to off load garbage to be transferred to a landfill. The board agreed as long as the process presented no problems. If problems arise, they said they would change back to what is currently working.
The board heard a request from Skiffer Community Development Association for donations to make improvements to their community park. Board members were not sure if they could make that donation because the park is a private entity. The issue was tabled to allow for additional research.
The board announced their intention to have a test meeting using the new Zoom equipment on Monday, Dec.21 at 10 a.m. There is no official business, but the test was to allow everyone to get comfortable in working with the system.
The board approved the burial of a dead donkey on a vote of four to one.
The board agreed to allow the city of Mendenhall the right to use the county voting machines for their municipal elections next year. The city will be responsible for the costs associated with the machines.
The next regular meeting of the board will be January 4. The county and offices will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
