The March 4 meeting of the Simpson County Board of Supervisors marked the first regular meeting for new County Administrator Eric Bowen, who replaces previous County Administrator Rhuel Dickinson after Dickinson retired last December.
Bowen has been with the county for several years and worked closely with Dickinson in the County Administrator’s office.
The board heard from Miss Heart of the South Teen April McNair, who shared her community service project with the board which focuses on emergency preparedness. McNair shared her experiences with natural disasters and how when she was 8 years old living in Seminar, Miss., her home was hit by an EF2 tornado that ripped off the top story of her home. This opened her family’s eyes to the need for emergency preparedness.
McNair said, “We realized we needed to have a better storm plan because piling up in our guest bathroom was not the best idea.”
She said they developed a plan and five years later their community was struck by an EF4 tornado in which they lost everything. Her family then relocated to Magee, and she decided to compete for Miss Mississippi Teen and she wanted to shed light on storm preparedness as her CSI.
McNair said, “I knew that this would be the perfect opportunity to shed light on this topic. As Mississippi is in the middle of tornado alley this topic is prevalent to all Mississippians.”
She provided pamphlets with information on storm preparedness and encouraged everyone to implement plans in their homes.
The board opened various bids for supplies and materials and took them under advisement.
Road Manager Ben Warren expressed a need for new asphalt packers to pack down the asphalt that the county is putting down on roads. He explained that the crews are struggling with the current equipment and can do a better job with new packers. Warren said he has been inquiring about prices and estimated a packer to cost around $15,000. The board approved up to a $15,000 limit for Warren to search for a new packer. Supervisor Mitchell Chatman was opposed and said the county needed to save money by using the existing equipment.
County Engineer Greg Bonds was approved to advertise for bids on projects throughout the county. Bonds discussed potential projects that the board could present to the legislature and request help with funding. He said it needed to be a transportation project, trail, storm shelter, community center, or other projects like that. He said it needs to be something that the board agrees on, and they can submit a request for funding. Supervisor Wayne Womack suggested the project align with upgrades that are scheduled for D’Lo Water Park.
County Administrator Eric Bowen presented his agenda. The board voted to allow the county administrator to handle livestock or poultry disaster subject with the notification of the board. The board also approved all items for Bowen to transition into his new role.
Jeremy Bolton updated the board on the CDL Co-Lin partnership, and the board agreed to expand the programs to include three additional participants with an agreement to work for the county for one year.
Charlie Welch updated the board on the work order interface that went live on March 1. He said there have been over 400 entries since testing began in January. The board has been pleased with the program and offered minor adjustments.
Welch said that solid waste will have Michael Andrews collecting data for solid waste on over 1,400 houses over the next three months. He explained that they plan to collect data on 120 houses a week that are behind on their garbage bill. Welch said 107 houses have been collected so far. He shared statistics on their findings and said 61 percent of these houses have 911 addresses, 85 percent of the residences are accessible, and 73 percent of these residences exist at those locations. Welch said 48 percent of the residences are occupied, and 15 percent have multiple homes on the locations. Welch said the tax assessor has reviewed 15 percent of the 107 homes and three percent are eligible to be flagged for their garbage bill. The residences that are not occupied or do not exist have been still generating a garbage bill. The board discussed how to clean the program up to stop generating bills for houses that do not exist.
Welch also provided an update on the courthouse roof and asked for a close out on the project.
Tonya Brewer with the Lathan Company appeared before the board and said they have done the work twice, and the original leak must be above their work. She said they put caps on all the stands, and the original hole is above the restoration that they have done to the roof meaning it falls outside of their scope of work.
Brewer said, “I need y’all to do right by us so we can move on with our contract. We will help you with this, but we need to get the contract closed. We’re stuck as a company by not being able to do other work and move on to new contracts.”
She said they discovered 93 pinholes where water can penetrate the courthouse and have fixed all but two. Brewer said her company will still help with finding and repairing the leak. The board agreed via majority vote to close out the contract and continue to work with Lathan to discover the leaks with an amount to not exceed $5,000 in additional repairs. Mitchell Chatman was opposed.
Pat Brown appeared before the board and presented plans to purchase a stage for D’Lo water park and install pickle ball courts, and disc golf. Brown said the park will also have glorious camping (glamping) locations installed, and a suspension bridge across the river that will also lead to a walking trail.
Brown shared that plans are to spend $52,000 on upgrades and he asked the board to help sponsor the pickle ball courts. The board agreed to ear mark $10,000 for pickle ball courts in the next budget.
The board entered executive session to discuss MS Hub litigation before adjourning the meeting.
