Following tradition, the Simpson County Board of Supervisors elected new leadership at their first meeting of the year Monday.
Supervisor Randy Moore will serve as president of the board as Danny Craft steps down. Brian Kennedy will assume the role of vice president of the board.
County Engineer Buddy Wolverton reported to the board the status of various projects in the county.
State aid projects include the surfacing of Cato Road, Mt, Zion to Shivers Road, and St. Johns Road.
Currently on the drawing board is a bridge on Sofa Road. The county will also be acquiring right of way for the Star-Braxton Road.
The board approved hiring Amanda Bryan to move from part time dispatcher to full time. Sheriff Paul Mullins reported to the board that there have only been six cases of Covid-19 in the work program for inmates. He indicated that everything should continue to be operational.
The board gave the nod to hiring James Abernathy as a worker in the Road Department. Road Manager Ben Warren made the board aware of a pot-hole patcher that should be available from Rankin County sooner than was anticipated. He also informed the board that the Road Department has been working with eight backhoes and that was helping to get many projects accomplished. He encouraged the board to keep that many back holes available.
The board approved paying the monthly operations docket in the amount of $93,400.59. They also approved the emergency extension of bridge repair for the county as well as extending the emergency order that allows them to deal with pandemic issues.
The board approved the use of the old jail facility for the filming of a movie in February.
The board express their approval to obtain used bush axes through reverse auction. The legal notice of their intent will be published in future editions of this publication.
The Legislative/Education meeting that is held for board members will be condensed to a single day set in March. There was also discussion about the meeting being held digitally.
The next meeting of the board is set for January 15.
