A former Mississippi Delta Community College faculty member and coach, Domino Bellipanni, has been named as the newest board member for the MDCC Board of Trustees.
District 3 Supervisor Dennis Holmes announced Bellipanni as his choice on Monday and his fellow supervisors voted unanimously to accept the placement.
Bellipanni will replace outgoing member Paula Sykes whose five-year term expired June 30. Holmes said although Bellipanni is now retired he did work for the college for more than 30 years and he sees him as being an asset to the board.
Inverness needs a new firetruck
The county lawmakers once again discussed the purchase of a new fire truck for Inverness.
The truck is estimated to cost around $400,000, but County Administrator Gloria McIntosh said the county currently does not have any reserve funds to purchase the truck.
“We dont have any funds. We didnt levy any funds,” she said.
“When did we stop levying?” asked President Glen Donald.
He said formerly, the county exacted funds for the purpose of purchasing fire trucks for the municipalities. Reflecting back, Donald said he thinks the annual levy was removed from the budget, at some point prior, to lower taxes, but now suggested re-establishing it.
He also mentioned that the money that is usually accumulated in the county’s fire round fund and reminded the members that those funds were recently used to purchase two sets of hydraulic rescue extraction tools for the fire departments in Ruleville and Indianola.
Each city within Sunflower County is on a staggered schedule to have its trucks replaced. Inverness is next on the list followed by Ruleville and Drew.
Donald said the levied funds were always in place for that purpose. “We’ve never had to just go and get a bunch of money at one time,” he said. District 3 Supervisor Dennis Holmes concurred and then suggested taking bids on the Inverness truck now since the purchase process could take several months and then seek a short-term loan after the first of the year.
When asked what the next step should be for the Inverness truck, Holmes told District 5 Supervisor Gloria Dickerson that they should get with the EMA director, Denny Evans, to get specifications on the truck so they can advertise for bids in order to come up with a possible cost estimate so they will know exactly how much they would need to borrow.
According to figures submitted by Comptroller Stephanie Washington, the supervisors currently have only one outstanding note for around $500,000. Attorney Johnny McWilliams said that the county has $2,000,000 borrowing capacity and with that $500,000 note and the possibility of borrowing another $300,000 for the truck that would leave about $1.2 million available in case of an emergency.
Based on the discussion, Inverness currently has about $150,000 in a special fire round fund that must be used towards the purchase of a truck. Donald suggested borrowing any necessary additional outlay and then levying funds for a few years to pay off the loan.
It was noted that the aging fleet of trucks in the county only have a lifespan of about 15 to 20 years and many of them are near that capacity now. Noting the age of the other trucks in the county, McWilliams suggested a longer-ranged plan. “You really need to start levying some fire funds every year. You have three (truck replacements) coming up in pretty short succession,” he said.
Donald and Holmes discussed the possibility of spending a much smaller amount of money to get the trucks re-certified for an additional five years to allow more time to replenish the fire fund before having to purchase more new trucks.
Although nothing was voted on, it appeared to be the mutual consensus of the group that they levy one mill and use half of that mill to pay the note on the fire trucks and the other half to replenish the fire fund.
In other business,
The Sunflower County Economic Development Director Fred Washington announced that former Doddsville mayor and economic development district trustee David Ruffin will take over as chairman of the development board, replacing current chairman Walton Gresham.
He also announced the receipt of a $332,000 Delta Regional Authority grant to improve a portion of the Sunflower-Itta Bena Road and an Environmental Protection Agency testing and cleanup grant that included the former Moorhead Allen Canning facility, plus sites in Isola and Tunica and Sharkey counties.
The board also voted to approve acceptance of a warranty deed of $25,000 for a parking lot at the Monsanto Building for Greenpoint Ag and approved the abandonment of all of the streets in Holly Ridge except for Holly Ridge Road and Holmes Road. The properties would go to the adjoining landowners.
They also approved the re-establishment of a contractual agreement for audit services for 2019 and 2020 with Bridges, Goodman, Baird & Clarke, PLLC.
