Pearl River County Board of Supervisors May 1st meeting
The Pearl River County Board of Supervisors met to discuss a variety of items including Chancery Clerk financial reports and funding for emergency watershed projects. To view the full agenda click here.
The Board to acknowledged the Annual Financial Reports (AFR) from the Chancery Clerk’s office at the request of Chancery Clerk Melinda Bowman. By acknowledging the AFR, the Board accepted $123,794.00 from the Chancery Clerk’s office to be put back in the County’s general fund.
When Bowman ran for the Chancery Clerk office, she told voters that she would not accept more than $90.000.00 as her annual salary. Once elected, Bowman told the Supervisors that she would pay for her salary and the salary of her staff out of fees collected by her department, even though the Board offered to pay for both her and her staff’s salaries which has been the procedure followed in the past.
“I was really proud that we were able to give to the county new funds and not just reimbursing the county for the staff,” Bowman said.
The Board also approved the AFR from Circuit Clerk Nance Fitzpatrick-Stokes and received approximately $124,000.00 from her office. The County funded the salaries of the Circuit Clerk’s office.
County Engineer Les Dungan updated the board on the county’s Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP). During the last EWP project, contractor Pearl River Paving repaired three sites where large culverts had eroded and the total cost of construction to replace the culverts as well as engineering work was around $151,000.00. The reimbursement from the federal government for the project was $101,000, which meant the County was able to do the work on those sites for less than $50,000 of County funds, Dungan reported.
Road Manager of PRC Road Department Charlie Schielder added to Dungan’s statements and talked about the effectiveness of the bonds issued to them by the federal government.
“On the bigger projects if we have the funds available to us, it’s definitely a good program.” Schielder said. “They help us out alot.”
Dungan and Schielder have agreed to research the possibility of more roads and/or bridges in the county that would warrant EWP expenditure. An update will be presented to the Board by the next meeting.
Also during the meeting, the Board authorized a clothing allowance for Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department’s new investigator Jeffrey Joyner, Jr. and accepted $48.700 from the Mississippi Department of Corrections for reimbursement to the County for housing inmates for March 2017.
Emergency Operations Center Director Danny Manley reported some good news for residents that live in the Amacker Town and McNeill fire districts. Manley shared information with the Board that acknowledged the fire ratings for both had improved and this should mean lower insurance rates for residents in the districts. Amacker Town’s rating went from 9 to 8 while McNeills went from 8 to 7.
The next meeting for the Board of Supervisors is scheduled for Wednesday, May 17th in Poplarville.
