County becomes ‘second amendment friendly’

The Union County Board of Supervisors Monday adopted a resolution making the county a “Second Amendment Friendly County.”

The resolution, essentially symbolic, says that the county officials will not support any action relating to gun ownership that is unconstitutional. Similar resolutions in other areas say the local officials will oppose universal background checks and bans on high-capacity magazines and assault weapons.

Bob McDowell presented the proposal to supervisors, said the effort began in Virginia to protest any ban of private ownership of guns. He said this resolution has been passed in DeSoto, Alcorn, Tishomingo and Lawrence counties and is being presented in other Mississippi counties. “It is a symbolic show of support,” he said.

In personnel, Butch Cobb was named new county fire coordinator, replacing Steve Coker, who retired this past month. The coordinator works with the ten county departments as well as New Albany concerning training and equipment.

Also, Phillip Little was hired for the Second District road department.

The board approved declaring some county equipment as obsolete so it can be sold at auction. This includes items such as tractors, possibly a dump truck and garbage truck. The sheriff’s department will also sell some seized items including about 150 firearms of various types.

Mid-South Auction will conduct the sale, which was set for Saturday, March 7, at the Union County Fairgrounds. It was discussed holding the gun sale the previous evening, however. The dates will be publicized once the decision is made.

The City of New Albany was expected to have at least a bucket truck for sale in the auction as well.

Most of the other business was routine such as minor bureaucratic fees and policy decisions.

Supervisors approved regular first-of-the-month items including minutes, the claims docket, the road work schedule, solid waste register and medical examiner fees.

Several requests for funds were approved, all relating to grant-funded projects including the Martintown Industrial Access Road and the Hwy. 348 water system expansion.

Board members did vote to replace a leased copy machine in the law enforcement center by purchasing a new one, which will save a considerable amount of money over the cost of the eight-year-old machine. The purchase price from Copywrite is $3,426. The per-copy fee also will be considerably lower.

The next scheduled meeting of the Union County Board of Supervisors will at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, in the boardroom of the chancery court building. The meeting will be Tuesday because of the Feb. 17 Presidents’ Day holiday.