Representatives of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and Delta Correctional Facility came before the Leflore County Board of Supervisors on Monday to sign a deal for shared food services and to talk about other costs at the newly repurposed facility adjacent to the Leflore County Jail.
Earlier this summer, MDOC brought inmates from restitution centers and technical violation centers around the state and consolidated them at the formerly private Delta Correctional.
Because county inmates and state inmates reside under the same roof now, although in separate sections of the prison, some services are shared, such as food services.
Warden Everett Matheny and MDOC Deputy Commissioner Christy Gutherz told supervisors that the state has been providing food services to up to 200 county inmates and to up to 30 residents of the Leflore County Juvenile Detention Center at a cost of $4.95 per offender per day and will continue to do so.
The contract agreed upon is valid for a year, beginning Sept. 1.
District 5 Supervisor Robert Collins asked Matheny and Gutherz whether MDOC has arranged to pay for its share of utility costs for the state facility, a cost the county has been covering since before state prisoners arrived, at a rate of around $20,000 per month.
Gutherz said a local electric company has come out to give an estimate and MDOC is waiting for a solid number before changing over.
Switching the service and setting it up to be metered separately will cost as much as $17,000.
Gutherz told supervisors that for now the state has been providing county inmates meals without charge and the county has been providing electricity for the state facility, so neither government entity is carrying an undue burden.
The county has also agreed to seal the parking lots in front of and behind Delta Correctional. The state has leveled out most of those two surfaces and a few potholes remain to be filled.
County Ordinance Officer Otis Abron appeared before the supervisors in a show cause hearing to identify five dilapidated or overgrown properties that, according to the county’s new property ordinance that went into effect July 1, need board action taken to demand they be cleaned up — if not by owners, then by county workers.
Those five properties’ owners have been contacted and confirmed by registered mail.
The properties are at 1261 Glendale Ave.; 104 Maplewood Drive, Itta Bena; Tip Top Apartments, Itta Bena; Lot 10, Fairfield Addition No. 2; and Lot 9, Fairfield Addition. Fairfield and Glendale subdivisions are near Greenwood.
In some cases, following notification the owners began mowing or cleaning up the property and the county will continue to supervise progress. In others, Abron will use county unit system workers to begin cleaning up the property and will put a lien on it.
Supervisors voted unanimously to act on all five properties.
In other county business:
• Emergency Management Director Fred Randle reported to supervisors that an after action report from Mississippi Emergency Management Agency — following the recent full joint exercise simulating emergency efforts following a tornado and a fire at a centrally located oil mill — showed that county first responders performed satisfactorily in all areas.
Randle said MEMA will conduct a day-long emergency planning class for all interested first responders from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the incubator building near Itta Bena.
• Supervisors approved Sheriff Ricky Banks’ request to hire four new correctional officers at the Leflore County Jail to replace four who are leaving.
• Terrance Ollie, director of the Leflore County Juvenile Corrections Center, received board approval to hire three new part-time employees and to change the status of two existing part-timers to full-time.
• Board President and District 3 Supervisor Anjuan Brown informed the board that John Ray of Just in Time Music, Inc., with whom the county has contracted to hold music festivals at Florewood Park, has canceled plans for a Labor Day Weekend event because of “the enormous amount of entertainment traffic in the area that weekend.”
Ray said his company would begin its contractual agreement with the county instead on Mother’s Day weekend in May 2019.
Supervisors agreed to alter the terms of the contract with Ray to reflect that change.
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
