Supervisors approve revised voting districts and purchases of new equipment

The Union County Board of Supervisors has approved revisions in the lines of the five districts from which they are elected. The supervisors also approved changes in the district lines for the county’s two justice court districts.

The changes are the result of the population count in the 2020 federal census. The census shows a total 2020 population for Union County of 27,777 compared to 27,134 people counted in 2010. That is population increase of 643 persons between 2010 and 2020, an increase of 2.4 percent.

Larry Britt of the Elliott & Britt civil engineering firm, the county’s engineering consultant, was in charge of analyzing the census data and re-drawing the district lines. Law requires that the districts be as close to equal in population as possible. The engineers said they also tried to minimize changes in the supervisory and justice court districts as much as possible.

Britt said he would be providing electronic maps of the new voting districts soon. NEMiss.News will publish those maps when they are available. Using the maps, voters should be able to determine what changes if any have been made in their districts.

The unanimous vote to approve the new districts was taken after a hearing at the Monday, August 15, 2022, meeting of the county board. Their were no speakers at the hearing except for the presentation by Elliott & Britt.

The population growth of 2.4 percent for Union County between 2010 and 2020  was much lower than many expected. Throughout the United States the 2020 census was, to put it  generously, a mess. However, that ship has sailed.

Other business at the county board’s meeting included approval of several significant expenditures:

The supervisors approved a low bid of $23,554 for 20 computers to be used throughout county government operations. The computer purchase, requested by Chancery Clerk Annette Hickey, is to replace old computers with Microsoft’s System 7 operating software. System 7 is obsolete and no longer supported by Microsoft.

At the request of Sheriff Jimmy Edwards, the board approved the low bid of $14,550 for a new 85-gallon commercial hot water heater for the county jail. The next lowest bid was nearly $2,000 more, and some board members expressed surprise at the price of the unit. The price of hot water heaters increased by as much as 50 percent in 2021 alone, the price increases blamed on increased material and transportation costs.

County Fire Coordinator Butch Cobb presented bids for the purchase of a new pumper fire truck for the Center Volunteer Fire Department. The board approved the low bid of $374, 600 for a pumper built by Pierce Manufacturing of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The next lowest bid was $384,000.

The next meeting of the Union County Board of Supervisors will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022.