State Rep. Sara Thomas stopped by the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors’ meeting on Tuesday morning to find out what the county leaders deemed their top concerns. And as suspected, more money for rural roads and bridges was paramount on their list.
The supervisors talked to the state lawmaker about the need for greater funding and the possibility of increasing the gasoline tax to generate more revenue for repairs to the infrastructure.
State Sen. Willie Simmons had met with the board in Dec. 2016 and shared how the state's 18.4 cents per gallon gasoline tax hasn't changed since the 1987 highway bill, and the result has been flat funding while costs for labor and materials needed to build and maintain roads have increased dramatically.
Roads and bridges in particular have become a hot button issue with officials in Sunflower County in recent years.
Simmons said then that he would like to fix it so that road funding would increase with the price of gasoline rather than stay flat and there would be a floor so that funding would not fall below the current levels if gas prices drop.
Another concern raised by the county leaders was regarding local taxpayers having to foot the bill for ambulance service to inmates at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. The issue arose back in February and held up the county’s decision to renew its ambulance contract with MedStat.
At the time, Board Attorney Johnny McWilliams told supervisors that complaints had come in from North Sunflower Medical Center in Ruleville about not getting timely transports from the ambulance service and that was taking away from the ambulance services designed for Sunflower County citizens.
MedStat’s public service director told them that they were legally obligated to respond to calls for medical care and transport from the prison and maintained that their contract defines their service area as "the entirety of the geographic area of Sunflower County."
Thomas told the board to submit their priorities to her in writing so that she can make sure they are presented to the legislature as an official request and gets to the correct subcommittee. The information has to be put in bill form before it is presented, then it can be given to the full committee before being handed down to the floor.
One supervisor, Anthony Clark, asked if Thomas could come back every three months when possible to give them updates.
In other business,
The supervisors voted 4-1 to allow overtime pay for clippers and grader and excavator operators as a means of getting the county roads and ditches in better condition before the winter weather sets in. Supervisor Dennis Holmes voted no.
The board approved requests from the city of Moorhead to assist in the tearing down of an existing city building that was damaged by storm earlier in the year and repairing of a city street. The supervisors said they would assist when they could, but advised the mayor and city managers that the county had some priorities due to down equipment that must be handled first.
McWilliams opened bids for the annual supplies for fiscal year 2017-2018, but stated that they all would be taken under advisement.
