On Monday, during the first session of the new year, the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to purchase three new 4-wheel drive pickup trucks for the road department even after District 2 Supervisor Riley Rice expressed concern that work in the road department is still not being done even with a road manager and five assistants.
Rice’s concerns prompted the county lawmakers to opt for a closed/executive session to discuss road department personnel and whether they were going to keep certain ones after Rice opened up a discussion about uncut ditches on county roads.
“Three years ago on some of these roads we didn’t have ditches and three years later we still don’t have ditches,” Rice said. “We shouldn’t have to go out there and tell them. You’ve got all of these assistant road managers and you shouldn’t have to go there and tell them to pull a ditch,” he said they should know.
Rice indicated that he would like to see some results. “We have increased their pay three years, they ought to be doing some work. I want them to get out there and do some work.” The county is currently operating with five assistant road managers and one full-time manager.
The board made a decision in October to shift managers Kirby Chambers and Todd Rickles to assistant managers and rehire former road manager T.J. Fairley, who was then working for the county part-time as a trainer, to take the top position until the board determined if that was the best course of action.
Three assistants were already in operation and with the change that brought the number to five. Rice said the roads are inundated when it rains. “People shouldn’t have to complain that the roads are flooding and ditches need pulling when road managers are riding every day,” he said.
President Glenn Donald contends that the ditches were cut, but due to farm equipment turning around in the roads the dirt got tossed back into the ditches. Rice argued that it wasn’t the farmers, “The ditches were just never dug,” he said. Rice said the roads have been identified several times, but no work was done on the ditches.
Donald asked Fairley to weigh-in on the matter and Fairley surmised that no shoulders were cut and only some of the ditches were cut during the summer because the road crew does not know how to pull them and nobody ever showed them. Fairley said when he was brought back part-time he was supposed to train people, but the managers sent him out to work alone instead.
“First, a road manager should be able to do anything, but you ain’t got that in some of the road managers, they don’t know how to do it themselves,” Fairley said.
Rice then wanted to know, “What are we going to do with those workers you say don’t know how to pull a ditch. We have raised their pay, if they don’t know how to pull a ditch what do we keep raising the pay for?”
At times the discussion seemed to cross lines because Monday’s declaration by Rice was further fueled by a discussion initiated by Donald regarding the need to find $80,000 to purchase three new 4-wheel drive trucks so that all of the assistant managers would have one.
Donald’s contention was that the heavier-duty work trucks are needed so the assistant managers can get up and down certain county roads that are in terrible driving condition and haul equipment. Supervisor Gloria Dickerson asked if the three new trucks were needed since the board has not officially determined they would keep the current hierarchy.
Donald said, “If you got rid of five people today, you would still need 4-wheel drive trucks.” He asserts that all of the trucks being purchased for the road department in the future need to be 4-wheel drive.
Rice asked, “Are we going to keep these five assistant road managers, do we need them?” Donald indicated that he thought they did. “But, are they going to work, though?” Rice wanted to know.
Dickerson said she would rather see somebody in the position that’s going to fix some roads, rather than ride around in the truck “all day long back and forth down Main Street.” Dickerson also said they need to identify where they need people because buying the trucks was not going to assure that the work gets done.
Donald then suggested that Rice and Dickerson were talking about two separate issues. He told Rice, “You’re talking about assistant managers and she’s talking about some employees.” Rice refuted the claim and asserted that Chambers and Rickles were supposed to be working also and doing whatever Fairley called upon them to do.
District 4 Supervisor Anthony Clark suggested giving Fairley time to train his people.
Rice said, “If we need to go into executive session and talk about the training of these people we need to do it. I need to make a motion that we go into executive session and talk about these people that don’t know how to do this work. I’m going to call some names, we need to call some names,” he said.
Holmes said he was not for buying trucks in the middle of the year, when they didn’t budget for it, but they need these trucks.
In other business,
The county decision-makers also tabled a discussion on what to do about the road crew’s ailing small dump truck inventory. Although the trucks are not as old as some of the ones in inventory, they have apparently been plagued with engine issues that have left them inoperable.
Donald and Holmes brought up the possibility of replacing the engines for a fraction of the cost to purchase new trucks; however, Rice raised a concern that the decision makers could be wasting money by not buying new trucks. “We’re taking a risk, we put that money into that truck and it don’t last, think about it,” Rice said.
He suggested that they buy new trucks, but said he was fine with the board’s decision either way. Donald then suggested doing a comparison. “Lets all work on it,” he said.
Donald asked the other supervisors to research and bring back recommendations for the next session. “Lets look at the cost what it take to rehab it, bring it (the truck) back and let’s see what it cost to get a new one.”
Donald asked Holmes to check on what it would take to rehab the trucks and bring them back up to standard. “I’m going to look at trying to find some already up and running that’s used, Mr. Rice is going to look at some brand new ones and Mrs. Dickerson and Mr. Clark are going to work with all of us on the three projects,” said Donald.
Fairley cautioned that the trucks have been idle for a while and will likely need parts other than an engine, such as tires.
