The Leflore County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Monday to extend a mask mandate to all county buildings in light of the spread of the delta variant of COVID-19.
A countywide mask mandate implemented last year was lifted this June. Earlier this month, the board voted to impose a mask mandate just for the Leflore County Courthouse.
In another matter pertaining to COVID-19, District 5 Supervisor Robert Collins brought up how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Monday. The FDA had previously granted emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine and other COVID-19 vaccines.
Assuming that the federal government may require its employees to be vaccinated, Collins asked whether the board could do the same for county employees.
District 3 Supervisor Anjuan Brown said he favors requiring all county employees to get vaccinated but would like to see what the federal government does first.
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that vaccine mandates issued by public or private employers do not violate federal law.
In other business:
- Carla Williams, a resident of the Glendale subdivision, asked the board for an update regarding assistance for homeowners whose homes were damaged by flash flooding in June.
After the flooding, the supervisors voted to partner with Holmes County’s long-term recovery committee so the county could receive up to $250,000, in installments, from the state’s Disaster Assistance Repair program.
Fred Randle, the county’s emergency management director, told the board that the first allotment of $50,000 for the county has been approved and that the funds should be received “any day.”
The money does not go directly to affected residents but to the recovery committee, which purchases building materials for home repairs on behalf of the residents.
Randle said case managers have been calling affected homeowners throughout the county to assess what type of building materials are needed. Residents who have spent their own money for home repairs are not reimbursed under the state’s program.
The board had also voted to establish a long-term recovery committee so that the county can directly request money from the state for future disasters.
Randle told the board that he would like each supervisor to nominate a person to serve on Leflore County’s committee. The committee should include people with experience in construction and people with knowledge about running a nonprofit, he said.
- The supervisors unanimously voted to send a letter to the Greenwood Leflore Hospital Board to have the supervisors added to the agenda of the hospital board’s next meeting.
The supervisors are looking to get an update on the hospital’s financial troubles and provide input. The city and the county co-own the hospital.
During last week’s hospital board meeting, some members expressed concern about the hospital’s significant drop in cash reserves at a time when most of its federal pandemic relief funding has run out. Patient volume also has not returned to what it was before the pandemic.
District 4 Supervisor Eric Mitchell said the county should have firsthand knowledge about the hospital’s financial standing rather than reading about it in the Commonwealth. District 1 Supervisor Sam Abraham agreed and said he also favored setting up a meeting with the hospital board.
- The supervisors approved a motion to sell two older, unused vehicles belonging to the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department to the city of Itta Bena for $1 apiece.
Itta Bena Mayor Reginald Freeman has said he wants to take measures to upgrade the town’s police department, such as hiring more officers and purchasing vehicles.
The two vehicles to be sold to Itta Bena both have a high mileage count and were in the process of being rotated out, said Ken Spencer, deputy sheriff.
- Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
