The big news to come from the Simpson County Board of Supervisors meeting last week was the rubber stamp to transfer ownership of the water tower in the industrial park located on Hwy. 43 outside of Mendenhall.
Following a request from the City of Mendenhall, an official request was made to transfer the water tower and approximately one acre of land to the City. The process was a rather long one which required the unanimous approval of the City of Mendenhall, the Simpson County Development District and finally of the Board of Supervisors. The next step will be the approval of the state legislature before any deal can be struck.
The transfer will allow the city to use the tank to provide water pressure for the rest of the consumers on their existing service. Mendenhall built lines and services to the tower when it was originally built as part of an operational agreement with the industrial park.
The city will not be able to expand existing services in the area because the service area where the tower is located actually belongs to Boggan Ridge Water Association. If an industrial prospect were to locate in the area or the park, they would have to get service from Boggan Ridge.
The city will only be able to service existing customers whom they already serve.
Board members questioned the situation of future industry which would default to Boggan Ridge. However, Board Attorney Danny Welch said that the property would most likely need to be deemed no longer needed for industrial development and could then be sold for other purposes. Residential development was one of the possibilities mentioned.
Donnie Caughman, director of the Simpson County Development Foundation, also mentioned the possibility of a land swap for the development of industrial prospects.
In other business the board heard from resident Paul Berry about garbage complaints. His major concern was that in addition to garbage having to be in a container when picked up, it also had to be bagged.
He recently moved from Rankin County, which he said offered the same service and residents did not have to bag trash. He said the services were also less expensive. His complaint included the fact that the garbage crew would not pick up garbage in Walmart bags or anything other than a heavy duty bag and complained it was costing the resident too much to comply. He suggested the county should have lift trucks so the workers would not have to physically handle the garbage. Board members said they could not afford the trucks with lifts.
It was suggested that the county find a company that could handle the waste to prevent these types of issues. It was stated that the county has a legal requirement to see that garbage is collected within the county. They added that if a resident does not agree to paying for the service the only alternative is to attach the bill to that for car tags. Road Manager Ben Warren restated the problem of litter all over the county.
The board agreed to appoint Richard Rankin to the Simpson County Development Foundation as their representative to the board.
The board approved a low bid on a county road project from Fordice Construction Company at $190,227, which was 1.1 percent over the engineer estimate. Other bids came in as high as $365,497.
The board accepted a bid from Com South and Jackson Communication for a piece of 911 equipment. The lowest bid was accepted and the second bidder objected, saying he was not given the opportunity to bid the same equipment. Jackson Com was awarded the bid.
The next scheduled meeting of the board is set for March 4.
