District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald expressed ire on Monday over the way several homeowners are handling their properties in the Eastmoor Subdivision in Moorhead.
He alluded to residents who seemingly lack pride when it comes to the upkeep of their surroundings.
"Some people are doing great, they're keeping their properties up, but we've got others who look like they're trying to destroy what Hope (Credit Union) is trying to do," Donald said.
At Monday's Sunflower County Board of Supervisors meeting, Donald shared the history behind the improvements made in the Eastmoor community by the county, Hope Credit Union and others and stated his case to the group. He expressed that despite some previous setbacks, a portion of the residents are now investing money to sustain and upgrade their properties.
But unfortunately, others are piling unsightly items and debris in their front yards, leaving it there and doing thing to degrade their homes' value and their neighbors.' He mentioned homeowners who were also allegedly operating a pit bull farm in the community with multiple dog cages.
"It's like slapping Hope Credit Union in the face,” Donald said.
He talked about the $1 million spent on sewer, water and drainage.
He stressed that many residents of the subdivision are respectful good citizens, but noted how even one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.
He asked Attorney Johnny McWilliams what could be done to help out the residents in that area who seem to care about their community.
Donald said he has been working with Sheriff James Haywood to address some concerns. "But in order for the sheriff to enforce something, we've got to have some kind of provision in place or some kind of ordinance that say what you can and you can't do," Donald said.
"I can't just give you an off the top of my head answer that's going to solve everything,” said McWilliams. He told Donald that prior to him mentioning it, he has not heard from anyone else and no one has described the problems to him.
McWilliams said that Eastmoor has a certified homeowners association that was established for the neighborhood and that rules were in place, so it should just be a matter of enforcing them.
He suggested that he and Donald get together to discuss the matter along with the homeowners association to first see what guidelines they have in place. He suggested that the homeowners submit written documentation on the issues so that he can properly address them.
Donald said he would get with the necessary people and come back to McWilliams at a later date. However, McWilliams offered up that the county lawmakers could pass ordinances, but the key would be to enforce them and make sure that they are fair to everybody.
In other business,
And then there was one. Sunflower County Road Manager T. J. Fairley informed the county lawmakers on Monday that all of the county’s road department employees, except him, are out. They are awaiting the results of their coronavirus tests. Reportedly, each of the workers were tested on Thursday after two of the employees, who had contact with all of the other employees, tested positive for COVID-19. At the request of Fairley, the county lawmakers hired eight temporary employees and seven new full-time employees to do the work.
County Engineer Ron Cassada talked about several projects including repairing Airport Road. The continual road reclamation project will stretch from Beaverdam Road to MS 448. Cassada said the project can now be completed because there is enough money to bring the project off of the shelf and get it working.
He also described the procedure in brief. "What we do is we leave the material that's in place and we mix the entire thing with cement. So there will be a nine-inch soil/cement base and then three inches of asphalt on there, which should hold the truck traffic," Cassada said.
Additionally,
Sunflower County Tax Assessor/Collector Cynthia Chandler and tax clerk Renee' Upton presented the 2020 edited tax rolls for acceptance and the county lawmakers voted unanimously to accept and approve them with the stipulation that the public can object to any evaluation up and until the first Monday in August. According to Upton the totals for the year are up, over $4 million, and the bulk of it is from personal property she said.
Sunflower County Circuit Clerk Carolyn Hamilton is getting a glass security door installed in her area to assist with the flow of traffic due to the coronavirus outbreak. Discussions were also made with regard to installing sneeze guards, but no final decision was made.
The county leaders also voted to proceed with the purchase of new E-911 equipment contingent upon their ability to purchase the equipment on state contract.
Donald informed the other members that the current E-911 system has been constantly plagued with problems and suggested that they quit prolonging the purchase of a new system since it is already included in this year's budget.
He said a representative of AT&T, the company who provides the current equipment, has again said the current system is obsolete. "He said if that thing fails, they could not and would not be able to get any parts for it," Donald said.
Donald stated that the more they delay the purchase, the worse the system is going to get. "If we keep kicking that can down the road, we're going to be stuck with a system that's going to take four or five months to build."
McWilliams agreed, but cautioned that they need to make sure that the AT&T equipment that was proposed to replace the current system is on the state contract list. "If it is, we should do this," McWilliams said.
