It's been a few years since Sunflower County had an active mass notification system for emergencies, but that is about to change.
On Monday, the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to accept Emergency Management Director Denny Evans' recommendation to enlist the services of Hyper-Reach.
Evans presented three proposals to the county leaders and chose Hyper-Reach because not only did the company submit the lowest quote, but also it had the added feature of working with the Alexa app.
Hyper-Reach has the ability to send a voice or text messages, Teletype for the hearing impaired or an alarm to reach as many people as needed with just one phone call or computer entry.
Afterwards, Evans said that he is not sure when the service will be active because they are still working out the contract. “My hope is to have it up and running in November,” he said. Evans asserted that late November and December is when this area typically experiences more storms.
He presented quotes from two other companies including Code Red, which was formerly used by the county. Their quote was the highest at $9,650 per year. The second highest quote was from AlertSense Inc., and their cost was $5,925 per year.
The citizens will have to sign up for the Hyper-Reach service by putting in their addresses in order to get warnings and notices based on their location.
In addition,
Evans also announced that the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency has provided the county with an electrostatic sprayer, something that has been in high demand since the onset of the coronavirus. The sprayer can be used to treat large areas with antiviral material to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The county lawmakers approve the receipt of the machine, placed it into the EMA inventory and it was suggested that one person be assigned the sprayer and a hazmat suit to spray any county departments that make a request and it is to be coordinated through the county administrator and Evans.
Emergency 911 Director John Thompson said the new 911-system equipment has started to arrive and the new system should be operational by the first of December.
Moorhead citizen Darrin Carpenter made an appearance before the county leaders in the hope of getting some direction on how to proceed with a zoning issue regarding property he owns in the Eastmoor Subdivision.
According to him, he recently became aware of a 50-year-old covenant that restricts the lots in the subdivision to single-family dwellings. However, about four years ago he built a duplex on a lot there. Now, another resident has raised issue and filed a lawsuit against him and wants him to tear the duplex structure down.
According to Carpenter, the aforementioned covenant allows for a repeal in the restriction if at least half of the residents in the subdivision would sign a petition indicating that they do not have any objection to the structure.
Carpenter said he has already acquired a petition and the necessary amount of signatures, but is asking the county to intervene and excuse him from the restrictions of the covenant.
However, Attorney Johnny McWilliams stated that the county could not exempt him from the provisions of that covenant. "And the county can't decide for everybody else down there who own lots if that's what they want to do or not," he said.
McWilliams said that if the covenant Carpenter is dealing with is like most other covenants then he would have to file a motion in the Sunflower County Chancery Court and the judge would have to rule in his favor.
He suggested that Carpenter get a lawyer and follow the instructions of that attorney with regard to how to proceed in court. “We could not simply void those restrictive covenants,” McWilliams said.
