The recent storms and the flooding and devastation caused by them prompted Sunflower County Board of Supervisors’ President Riley Rice to query Sunflower County Emergency Management Director Mitch Ramage on the condition of the county’s emergency response.
"Are we ready for an emergency, is it anything that we need?" Rice asked.
Mentioning the damage caused by Hurricane Ida in the eastern United States, Rice said he wanted to make sure that the county had the generators, alert sirens and emergency shelters in place that it needs.
Rice said some county residents in the smaller municipalities have told him that they have not been getting an emergency message.
"They say they don't even know when the storm coming, they say the storm be right up on them and they don't know," he said.
Ramage stated that he had the generators but was still working on the sirens situation. He also mentioned the county's Hyper Reach program.
District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald then asked Ramage about the Code Red program that the county used previously. He indicated that he was not familiar with Hyper-Reach.
Ramage informed him that the new service had replaced Code Red and that the county was no longer paying for that. Donald asserted that he was not getting Hyper-Reach notifications and Ramage reminded him that he would have to sign up for the service.
Upon the recommendation of then Emergency Management Director Denny Evans, the county leaders unanimously voted to switch from Code Red to Hyper-Reach at its second meeting in October 2020.
At that meeting, Evans presented three proposals to the county leaders and they chose Hyper-Reach because not only did the company submit the lowest quote, but it also had the added feature of working with the Alexa app.
Ramage explained to the county leaders how the emergency service works. Hyper-Reach has the ability to send 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.
Ramage said this program can be used for floods, fires, severe weather, public health alerts, criminal activity and many other situations. However, Sunflower County residents will have to sign up for the service. The citizens can call 662-445-4112, text “Alerts” to 662-445-4112 or go to http://hyper-reach.com/mssunflowersignup.html.
In other business,
It appears that some of the American Rescue Plan Act funds handed to the county have been unlocked. The county is in possession of $2.4 million in funds and was given until August 31 to submit a loss revenue report.
Chancery Clerk Gloria McIntosh announced on Tuesday that based on that report, over $1.2 million of that money is now classified as unrestricted. "Once we did the calculations, we found out that we had a lost revenue of $1,256,904," she said. The county has $2,438,661.50 of ARPA money in the bank.
County Administrator Fred Washington explained the calculations as such. "Originally on the $2.4 million, all of the funds were restricted. So, based on the understanding that we have so far to this point, it means that the $1.256 million will be unrestricted. So, we can spend it on other items," Washington said.
However, he cautioned that they would have a clearer understanding once they met with officials on Wednesday. "So, I wouldn't jump too soon to spend that money yet," Washington added.
Attorney Johnny McWilliams also reminded the lawmakers that this new update would require them revamping some of the decisions that were previously made. "You will have to go back and redo all of the talks you had about what you were going to use the money for,” he said.
McWilliams said the $1.256 million could now be used for any legal purposes, including the roads and not just for a COVID-19 related items.
District 5 Supervisor Gloria Dickerson had several questions with regard to the disclosure and it was again stated that the session on Wednesday would be the best time to get those answers.
McIntosh and Washington agreed and said that coming up with the calculations was a very tedious process that involved pulling information from 2016 through 2018 and multiplying those figures times 2019 figures. Then, they had to subtract the difference and multiply that times the 4.1 percentage. "They call it a counterfactual," McIntosh said.
Spending the money will require strict adherence to federal and state guidelines. The leaders had made a list of possible projects at a previous meeting and some of those items were designated as questionable with regard to whether or not they were COVID-19 related.
It was suggested that those items be purchased with the unrestricted lost revenue money and the items that they were sure are COVID-19-related be handled with the remainder.
Several discussions ensued, but were later halted after District 3 Supervisor Ben Gaston suggested that they were having the conversations prematurely. It will be revisited at their next meeting.
