Some changes may be in store for the way the Greenwood-Leflore Airport Board operates as the Greenwood City Council and the Leflore County Board of Supervisors prepare to renew the board’s joint operating agreement.
Under the proposed agreement, the Airport Board would gain more leeway to operate with more independence. Currently, the City Council and the Board of Supervisors must approve all Airport Board decisions.
The Airport Board, appointed by both the city and county, oversees the operation of Greenwood-Leflore Airport. Although the airport is located in Carroll County, it’s jointly owned and operated by the city of Greenwood and Leflore County.
The joint operating agreement that governs the operations at the airport comes up for reapproval every couple of years.
The proposed agreement would allow the Airport Board to agree to leases at the facility, approve contracts and make expenditures from its preapproved budget. The Airport Board would be required to report to both the City Council and Board of Supervisors on each meeting as well as receive approval for any non-budgeted expenses or changes of policy.
Leflore County Chancery Clerk Sam Abraham said the proposed agreement would help unburden Airport Board members who currently have to shuffle between board meetings.
“Basically, it goes back to where they didn’t have to come before the board for everything, such as leasing small hangars,” Abraham said. “In the old system, they had to come back before the board for everything.”
“That puts a big burden on the Airport Board,” said Allan Hammons, a member of the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation Board who works closely with the airport.
Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted to table discussion of the new operating agreement until its next meeting. This morning, Board President Wayne Self said several supervisors simply wanted more time to read over the agreement and digest the changes.
“That was our first time looking at it, and we hadn’t had time to read over it or have the attorney look at it,” Self said.
Also Tuesday:
• Leflore County Tax Assessor Leroy Ware requested and received a $12,000 raise for assessing properties in the municipalities of Greenwood and Itta Bena.
Although Ware has been assessing those properties for several years, he hadn’t had his compensation increased for the extra responsibilities and work involved, Abraham said.
“When the city came on, the tax collector got additional compensation, but Leroy did not,” Abraham said, adding that the money for the raise had been set aside in the county’s budget.
• The board approved District 1 Supervisor Phil Wolfe’s motion to donate 10 county-owned radios to the Carroll County School District. The radios aren’t compatible with the county fire and sheriff departments’ new, FCC-mandated “narrow-banded” radio system, but Wolfe said the equipment may still be useful to the school district.
District 3 Supervisor Anjuan Brown, who works in the Carroll County School District, stepped out during the discussion of the donation.
• The board approved the hiring of Tristan McCord and Timothy Addison as part-time officers at the Leflore County Juvenile Detention Center. Both were hired to fill vacancies left when the board also approved the promotion of Kurtis Green and Daryl D. Johnson from part-time to full-time guards.
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
