The Simpson County Board of Supervisors held a special meeting on Tuesday, January 30, that resulted from a recessed meeting on January 22 during which the board discussed coordinating mapping between the Solid Waste Department, E-911, and the Tax Assessor’s Office.
Supervisor Wayne Womack stated that none of the departments are on the same page as to how many households are in the county and that the county must focus on these discrepancies to get the garbage billing correct. Several properties have been delinquent on garbage fees for five or more years resulting in a substantial amount of money owed to the county. He said the mapping needs to be correct so the county can know how many households are being serviced. The department heads held a workshop and presented the board with a plan on January 30.
Emergency Management Coordinator John Kilpatrick presented the plan for a base map and discussed other issues discovered through the workshop. He said a base map has been established through 911 and new addresses can be added. This map will be shared among the departments with limited access as to who can make changes. He said the county will still need Tri-State to do a map book update once a year. He also expressed the need to upgrade from a paper mapping system to a digital since 911 handles map books for the county. This will allow the county map to update as the 911 map does.
The board discussed requiring a copy of a driver’s license and possibly a social security number to be assigned a new address. Kilpatrick said the new process will help with collection process on delinquent bills and taxes faster. Encryptions would be required to store this data digitally, and handwriting the information was discussed as an alternative.
Getting an accurate assessment of structures in the county in regard to garbage bills has been a priority. This has sparked the new mapping initiative. The board discussed adding to the duties of the animal control officer and waste site management to help identify structures throughout the county using the new mapping capabilities. The employee would investigate addresses with delinquent trash bills of 5 years or more and mark it on the mapping app if a structure still exists at the address. The. Board approved the purchase of two iPads to begin the mapping assessment. If no structure is located at the address, then the bill would be stopped.
Kilpatrick said the system needed to be updated and purged so they could begin to work towards other capabilities. He said their hope is that the system will eventually flag customers who have not made a garbage bill payment within 18 months and notify the staff so a notice can be sent out.
Permitting issues were discussed at length with most problems lying with mobile homes. The board discussed ideas on how to ensure that mobile homes are permitted correctly, and how to ensure that everyone goes through the proper channels before establishing a mobile home. As discussions continued the board saw the need for another workshop before moving forward.
The meeting was adjourned until February 5.
