The city of Itta Bena is getting help from the Leflore County Board of Supervisors to get power restored to residents.
The board approved committing $200,000 for the restoration efforts during its regularly scheduled meeting Monday, with District 1’s Sam Abraham dissenting.
The mayor of Itta Bena, Mary Tyes-Williams, provided the Leflore County Board of Supervisors on Monday with an update of the city’s condition after the winter storm.
“Our most desperate need is our electricity,” she said. “Itta Bena has received minimum help from Greenwood Utilities, but that is only minimum. They will not be able to help us get fully restored.”
Itta Bena first started to experience outages to their electricity Jan. 25, at around 2 a.m. The city runs its own power company and is not affiliated with Greenwood Utilities or Entergy.
Tyes-Williams said 50% of the city’s customer base either has power or could have it restored with “minimum work.”
“For example, if we had a bucket truck, they could take some limbs off the (power) lines, and we can bring up more customers with power,” she said.
The other half of customers require the work of contractors. Tyes-Williams asked the board to approve a “letter of backing” so that the city could bring in the contractors.
“Due to the history that Itta Bena has in terms of debt and their past history of not paying bills, we have found that we are not credit worthy enough to get contractors in to restore our utility, our electricity,” she said.
“So, what we have to have is the backing of the board of supervisors to indicate that, if Itta Bena does not pay, that (the county) would be willing to pay.”
Tyes-Williams assured the board that the city would pay the county back if Itta Bena could not immediately pay the cost of restoring the electricity.
Tyes-Williams said the city has received help from the American Red Cross, The Salvation Army and other organizations. Volunteers and local restaurants have passed out hot meals to those in need.
Due to the winter storm, Itta Bena has also had trouble with its water.
“We currently have both of our wells up right now, so most of our residents are receiving water,” she said. “It is not back to where the capacity was before the storm, but it is getting there.”
-Contact Taylor Thompson at 662-581-7239 or tthompson@gwcommonwealth.com.
