County gets new grant for courthouse, old jail repair

Union County has received another grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in continuing efforts to repair and renovate the historic Union County Courthouse.

Supervisors accepted a $196,560 grant from archives and history this past week, to be matched by $49,140 local funds for restoration of the courthouse and old county jail exterior.

Board President Randy Owen said part of the money will be used for a new roof on the nearly 80-year-old jail, which is leaking badly. The extent of the courthouse work will depend on how much money is left over, but the doors and windows have been cited as still needing work. The county has received some other archives and history money in the past for repairs to the courthouse.

Also last week, supervisors received bids for institutions to serve as a county depository. The bidders offered several benefits but the main interest rates were 1.31 percent by BNA Bank, 1.37 percent by Renasant Bank and 1.23 percent by BancorpSouth.

Supervisors accepted all three bids, giving more flexibility in placement of county funds..

The only public appearance was by Charity Floyd, who wanted to appeal a $351 garbage bill.

She told supervisors that her garbage had never been picked up by the county and she was having to pay to have it disposed off in Tippah County, near where she lives on CR 163.

She said she had called several officials who referred her to the board of supervisors but this was the first they had heard of it and they had no idea why her trash would be overlooked.

The bill actually covered a span of three years and she had been paying a bill for most of the seven years she has lived there even though the garbage was not collected.

Supervisors said they would look into it to see what the case is and why her garbage is not being picked up. Apparently none of her neighbors have reported any problems.

Board members said they could see that collection is made in the future but they were not sure they could legally done anything about the past three years under the circumstances.

In other business they renewed the contract with Chempro to do roadside spraying, re-appointed Ray Collins to another three-year term on the GM&O Board and adopted a four-year road plan that includes mostly needed maintenance with no expensive capital items.

They approved travel for deputy Brett Wicker to attend a Basic Cyber Investigations class in Huntsville, Ala. Feb. 1921 and in personnel matters approved a longevity raise for sheriff’s dispatcher Jeffery McKeown and the employment of Richard Kiddy as a shop mechanic for the county road department.

They also approved a list of notices for increases and reductions of property assessment. Tax Assessor-Collector Tameri Dunnam said the changes were mostly the result of mapping errors, clerical errors or addition or removal of structures her office had not been aware of.

The next boar meeting was scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 3, in the boardroom of the chancery court building.