The Simpson County Board of Supervisors has opted not to appoint a new chairman for the county Election Commission until they have additional time for consideration.
The vacancy was created when Price Wallace of Mendenhall resigned the chairmanship of the commission to enter the race for State Representative of District 77.
Their decision came on the heels of having to reconsider their first appointment of Allen Floyd. The board approved Floyd’s appointment based on receiving a thumbs up from the secretary of state. Floyd told the board that his chairmanship of the local Republican Committee was not a conflict with the chairmanship of the Election Commission. It turned out, however, that the secretary of state later gave the appointment a thumbs down.
In other business, the board had claims from six Health Department employees that window glass in their vehicles was damaged when inmates working on a county crew were weed eating at the Health Department site. Inmate supervisor Howard Fewell told the board he did not believe that the work crew damaged the vehicles. The board voted to deny the claims.
The request from the Sheriff’s Department to use $28,500 from the electronic communications fund for the purpose of buying additional cameras was tabled while the cameras were being tested by the department. Part of the stated reason is that this was not a budgeted expenditure.
The board ratified the action of burying a dead horse for Candy Failor on Airport Road.
The board approved a bid from Lance Pearson of J&L Enterprises for paving work with the county.
The board approved hiring Danielle Brown as a part-time certified dispatcher, Samuel Thurman and Michael Williams as part-time detention officers, and also approved Jeff Smith to attend advanced law enforcement readiness training in D’Iberville.
Board attorney Danny Welch informed the board that the smaller building that was part of the Pioneer Health Facility in the Magee Industrial Park would go back on the tax rolls at the normal rate. The exemption that had been granted to Pioneer when the facility was built is no longer valid.
