The current icy road conditions and the imminent threat of more wintry mix hitting the Delta prompted the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors to declare a state of emergency at the start of Tuesday's meeting.
The county lawmakers voted unanimously to sign the declaration and subsequently register it with the state’s emergency management officials.
Additionally, they enacted a provision to grant administrative leave pay for certain workers who are unable to come to work because of the hazardous road conditions. Sheriff James Haywood stated that the roads were in no shape to drive on. "If anybody doesn't need to travel, they don't need to get out there. All of the roads in Sunflower County, we had snow on them and after last night, with people traveling, the roads are slick," he said.
Haywood also mentioned the condition of the bridges on U.S. Highway 82 between Moorhead and Indianola and the ones on U.S. Highway 49 near Inverness and other sites and noted that historically during severe icy weather those structures get very slick. “A person, if they don't have to travel, they shouldn't even be crossing them," he said.
Referencing the predicted forecast, Haywood added, "If we get ice, I wouldn't recommend we have any employee take that chance. County roads, state highways, everything," he said.
President Riley Rice queried the other members about the possibility of closing the county courthouse for the duration of the week. "I know it's going to be cold and it's going to be freezing Thursday morning and I don't think they will be able to get on the road on Friday," he said.
However, Attorney Johnny McWilliams informed him that there is no provision in the statutes for officially closing the courthouse. McWilliams said, "As a practical matter, if folks can't get to the courthouse, well they won't be there and that includes your employees and that's okay, but I don't think you ought to officially say the courthouse is closed for a whole week."
McWilliams said despite the current conditions and the impending inclement weather, some citizens may still need to conduct official business so, hopefully the department heads will be able to run skeleton crews in order to transact business if necessary.
He reasoned that if an employee didn’t work, then they should not get paid. Circuit Clerk Carolyn Hamilton then asked if the employees would have to use personal leave or vacation time if they were unable to come in to work. A discussion ensued that produced an enquiry about the possibility of those employees who are unable to get to work, being assigned certain tasks to do from home.
That presented another concern, since most of the work needs to be done on site because the departments are linked with other agencies. District 3 Supervisor Ben Gaston asked how it had been handled in the past and was told that previously they paid the employees, but it was only a one or two-day instance and has never lasted a full week.
So, after further discussion, it was suggested that since a state of emergency has been declared in the county that any employees who could not get to work and could not work from home be paid through administrative leave time.
The department heads were assigned the task of getting as many workers as possible to the job sites in order to have someone there to transact business and assigning work from home tasks or administrative leave to anyone else.
That measure did not include those deemed essential workers. Gaston asked about them and McWilliams said their earlier approved emergency proclamation provides for public safety employees including law enforcement (jail and sheriff’s department employees), road crews, dispatchers, the emergency management and E-911 directors and all such to be required to work as needed.
In other business,
In the absence of District 4 Supervisor Anthony Clark, the board members voted 3-1 to accept a proposal from Planters Bank & Trust for the $1,100,000 negotiable note on the proposed loan. Only one bid was received. Planters proposed a 1.85% interest rate with a gross interest cost of $51,807.99 over a four-year period. District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald voted no.
Sunflower County Emergency Management Director Denny Evans reported a reduction in the positive COVID-19 case count in Sunflower County. "Our numbers are down tremendously compared to what they were back in December and January,” he said. Evans then added, “The vaccine is being offered locally at both hospitals and at Walmart."
He also reported that the county's hazard mitigation plan, which was started back in the fall of 2019, but was hindered in progress due to the pandemic, has been finished and submitted to FEMA for final approval.
Additionally, the flood damage prevention ordinance that was approved at the end of last year now needs to be redone after it was submitted for final approval. Evans told the members that he had sent the information to a representative at MEMA before submitting it to them to assure that it was in order and that person had stated that everything was as it needed to be.
However, once it was resubmitted to MEMA, to a different representative, there were some changes that he required. Evans said there were a couple of things that needed to be taken out. “If we leave the language in there for both of them it will cause property owners added expense," he said.
Evans said a consultation with McWilliams verified that the whole process, including advertising and the public hearing, needs to be started again. McWilliams mentioned the time and effort put into the original process and how they were originally told that they were in compliance and acknowledged his frustration over it all having to be redone.
The county leaders also discussed heating issues at the county jail and instructed jail personnel to get the problem repaired as soon as possible.
The lawmakers discussed the procedures for expending the more than $500,000 that the county has amassed in state user tax funds. No specific expenditures were mentioned, but it was determined that the funds could be spent on anything road related except new road construction.
Also, a grove of nearly three dozen trees along a county-owned strip of property on the the north side of the Sunflower Humphrey's County Progress Inc., building is creating plumbing problems for that organization.
On Tuesday the board voted 4-0 to award the bid for removal to Johnson Brothers Construction after County Administrator Fredrick Washington said the trees were preventing the plumbing contractors from reaching the site. He presented proposals from Johnson Brothers and two other companies.
Washington said the SHCPI employees are currently unable to use their restroom facilities because of the interloping tree issue. "They're having to go up to Love's (Truck Stop)," Washington said.
Three proposals were submitted that were supposed to include cutting the trees down, removal of the stumps and roots and removal of any debris.
However, the only bid that reportedly met all of the specification was from Johnson Brothers and it was the lowest at a cost of $7,800. The other two proposals were from Knight tree cutting service for $6,400 and Crawford Construction for $5,325.
It was explained that the two companies would be working together to complete the required work and their amounts would have to be combined for a total that exceeds $11,000.
