Becky Oswalt, a Bruckner-Kiker Road resident, appeared before the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors on Monday to complain about the flooding conditions on her road, which is near the Drew-Merigold Road in District 5.
Oswalt, who has spoken to the board on prior occasions, presented the supervisors with photos that depicted the state of the road after the most recent rain and a petition signed by residents.
At its March meeting, President Glenn Donald told Oswalt that farmers and landowners who are not following the proper procedures when they are leveling and shaping their land, caused the ditches in her area to overflow and run out into the roadways.
Oswalt said the county has done some work on the ditches but they only completed a small portion of the road.
“They went about a quarter of the way down, and then they quit, they haven’t been back,” she said.
Oswalt said she can understand that the workers have to do other roads, but she doesn’t see why they can’t finish the one that they start before going to another road. However, Road Manager Todd Rickles maintains that the work they completed was sufficient to allow proper drainage.
“That’s as far as it needed to go,” he said.
Oswalt disputed this.
“It needs to go all of the way down to that big ditch,” she said.
After a lengthy discussion about what is, or is not needed, Donald suggested that the county engineer and the road manager get together with the supervisor and survey the area and make a determination on what else is needed.
The board also discussed several projects with County Engineer Ron Cassada, including the Drew Main Street project. Cassada assured them that the rumors that the incomplete project has been abandoned are not true.
“When ya’ll hear people say that they ran out of money and the contractor quit, it’s not true,” Cassada assured.
He told the board that once the concrete was pulled up they had a lot of utilities that had to be relocated including replacing three water mains.
He said it was a costly fix but they allowed for certain contingencies and the restart day will depend upon how quickly they can finish the work so, they should be up and running fairly quickly.
He also mentioned a CDBG project that requires a 50 percent match.
Cassada said the problem is that the minimum project requires a $100,000 request for grant money, which would mean the county would have to do a $200,000 project at minimum. And according to the county engineer, the proposed Eastmoor Subdivision project would only be about half that amount. They discussed additional add-ons that could bring the job up to the required $200,000 total.
In a related concern, Donald said there are a few Eastmoor Subdivision homeowners who are in violation of the county’s vicious dog/pit bull ordinance and he has asked the sheriff to serve notice to the residents.
Donald stated that in addition to it creating problems for other residents, the animal living conditions are inhumane. He has avowed to do whatever it takes to get the situation rectified.
In other business, the county lawmakers also discussed acquiring a loan to fund some of the county’s road projects.
The board conferred on what to do about approximately $83 worth of old unpaid Gresham Service Station invoices, presented by Sheriff James Haywood, some dating as far back as 2015. Attorney Johnny McWilliams questioned how the invoices have remained unpaid for so long, “Was it billed, well where has the bill been laying for three years? That’s pretty sloppy ya’ll,” McWilliams said.
McWilliams then added, “You’re going to get written up on this by the audit department, and you should be.” Haywood contends that the invoices were submitted for payment a long time ago, but in all likelihood no purchase order was issued. Apparently the invoices stem from deputies getting flats fixed on sheriff’s department vehicles and not informing anyone of the charges. Haywood said he would pay the amount due and then raise a collection from the drivers.
McWilliams said he met with the Ruleville police chief regarding recent issues raised about housing prisoners in the county and although there were some logistical concerns regarding the distance, he didn’t feel as though it wasn’t anything that could not be worked out. “When we left there I had a really good feeling about that situation,” McWilliams said.
Rep. Omeria Scott, a candidate for the U.S. Senate position, visited the county officials on Monday. Scott has been a member of the House for 25 years, but is on the June 5 democratic primary election ballot.
