City, county OK

Webster County and the city of Eupora have entered into an interlocal agreement for repair work on city streets.

The Board of Supervisors and the Board of Aldermen adopted the agreement during separate meetings Monday. It is effective until the repair work is completed, but not beyond Sept. 30.

The county will fill potholes on parts of these city streets, according to the agreement: Factory Road, Government Avenue, East Fox Avenue, Walnut Avenue, Waterworks Road, Colonial Street, Meadowlane Avenue, Dunn Street and South Allen Street.

Webster County will provide equipment, labor and supplies for the repair work. The city is to pay the county $4,901.50 when the work is completed as reimbursement for the cost of the repairs.

Also Monday, supervisors voted to adjust purchase clerk Kay Embry's salary and add her to the county medical insurance.

Appearing before the board were Karen J. McGregor with Affordable Employee Benefits, Jason Gilliland with Air Tool Supply of West Point and Doug Horne with Ergon Asphalt & Emulsion.

Rivers Presides

District 3 Supervisor Charles Rivers presided Monday morning because board president Robert Hitt and Vice President Charles McClellan were both unable to attend. On Friday, the board designated Rivers as presiding officer to preside over meetings while the president and vice president are both absent from meetings.

Hitt has not present at any meetings since Jan. 19 because of health issues and illness. He had been hospitalized at North Mississippi Medical Center-Eupora but was released Monday.

McClellan had traveled to Washington with Golden Triangle Planning and Development District officials. They attended the Development District Association of Appalachia Annual Conference in Arlington, Va., which was Sunday-Tuesday.

Feb. 16

On Feb. 16, the Board of Supervisors voted to pay $35,000 out of State Aid and Local System Bridge Project funds, as they become available, to Choctaw County, spread a related resolution on the minutes and authorize its signing.

According to the resolution, the money is being provided as matching funds for a portion of the engineering fees in a federal aid project on South Sapa/Pigeon Roost roads in Webster and Choctaw counties.

The project is to construct bridges over Pigeon Roost Canal and the Big Black River. The work is to be funded with 100 percent federal aid funds except for the required engineering services because it is an off-system project.

Additionally on Feb. 16, the board voted to:

• accept $1,500 from Andy Johnson, aka FJH Inc., as a donation and deposit it into the District 5 road maintenance. Johnson is logging on a road in District 5 and the donation is to help offset the expenses of repair of the road.

• hire Chris Ross of Webster County on a part-time basis in the tax assessor/collector's office to help in entering property cards, effective March 1-July 31.

• allow eight dispatchers at the E911 Center to attend a medical certification course at the center at a cost of $299 each.

• write a letter to United Healthcare on behalf of former county road worker Brad Turman concerning the providing of insurance and Medicare on Turman's claims.

• accept a grant of $7,414 from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to clean up illegal dumps and to enter into a formal grant agreement with MDEQ reflecting this

• maintain school bus turnarounds for the remainder of the school year at Busy B's childcare center, 2655 Highway 9; Christy Trainer's driveway, 112 Gifford St.; and 110 Sutphin St. The county School Board previously approved these turnarounds.

• enter into a contract at 3.25 percent interest rate with BancorpSouth for the financing of a 2010 Mack Truck. The quote was accepted Feb. 1.

Chris Ramsden, regional sales manager with Raytheon Network Centric Systems, appeared before the board regarding the Public Safety Interoperable Communications federal grant program. No action was taken.

In a separate recessed meeting that evening, four of the supervisors met with the Eupora Board of Aldermen at City Hall. As reported last week, the purpose of the meeting was to discuss plans for the city/county-owned Garan property in Eupora on Highway 9 South. "The two boards had a good discussion but no official action was taken at the meeting," the county board minutes state.

Feb. 26

Minutes of a recessed meeting last Friday state that Jettie Pettit of the U.S. Census Bureau addressed supervisors and thanked the board for its cooperation.

Additionally, records show, the board voted to:

• advertise for LSPB projects and take bids April 14.

• approve 16th Section land leases for Earlene Hodges, Henry Knight and Heath Farley. The School Board previously approved the leases.

• allow Justice Court Judge Jerry Jones to attend the 2010 Professional Judicial Development Conference at Choctaw on April 5-6 and reimburse his allowable expenses.

The board's next meeting is set for 8:30 a.m. March 15.

Jail Discussion

On Feb. 15, supervisors also discussed the jail situation but no action was taken. The county must comply with a federal court order to complete a plan to build a new jail in order to continue housing state prisoners. The Board of Supervisors has budgeted $2 million-plus over two years toward jail construction.

The Chickasaw Journal reported Feb. 3 that Chickasaw County Sheriff Jimmy Simmons had had informal discussions with Webster County about housing Webster prisoners when a regional prison in Houston is completed. The facility will house medium-security prisoners and will have a capacity of 300.

The agreement would bring 25 to 30 prisoners at a time to the county, for perhaps $30 per day for each prisoner, according to the article.

"That would be enough to pay a couple of salaries," Simmons told the Chickasaw County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 1., the newspaper reported.

"We need to take advantage of any revenue we can," Hall was quoted as saying.

Webster County Sheriff Phillip Smith confirmed that he had talked to Simmons and Choctaw County officials after the county board here asked him to contact neighboring sheriffs about housing prisoners.

Smith said the other sheriffs provided him with figures for doing so, which do not include prisoner insurance and transportation costs. However, Smith said, "We're looking at other options."

et repairs