VAIDEN — Carroll County supervisors decided in a closed session Thursday to close the Justice Court office in Carrollton and combine it with the one in Vaiden.
Court for the Northern District will still be held in Carrollton, but day-to-day business will be conducted in Vaiden, Board Clerk Sugar Mullins said.
“If you have to pay a ticket or make out papers on someone, you will go to Vaiden,” he said.
The clerk in Carrollton recently retired, and the board took the opportunity to close the office. The two offices are taking in less than it is costing to run them, Mullins said.
The board met behind closed doors on a motion by Supervisor Terry Herbert, a second by Rickie Corley, and a unanimous vote.
The board also discussed a new retirement community going in near Winona just off U.S. 82 East, but in Carroll County. Mark Stiles told the board about his plans for the new home, which will start with 15 residents. He told them he hopes to expand eventually to three homes of 15 residents each.
The new retirement home will be called Shady Glen Retirement Village.
“We want to keep it local, keep the elderly able to stay near their homes and churches and live in a secure place,” Stiles said. “We will have transportation to doctors’ appointments, a swimming pool, exercise equipment – whatever our residents want.”
Stiles said he is not asking for any special favors from the board and hopes to get water and sewer service through the city of Winona.
“We plan to hire local people, at least 10 to start,” he said. “Charles Bowman of Greenwood is the architect, and we plan to go with local contractors. There will be 11 rooms, and four can be double occupancy.”
Also at Thursday’s meeting:
• Supervisors complained to Waste Services of Mississippi about the garbage service in recent weeks. The company has had problems with a number of trucks, but they have been repaired and are now running on time, said Greg Green of Waste Services.
Supervisors also asked for more communication from the company to improve service and also be certain to bring in the revenue the county needs to pay for the garbage service.
• Herbert told the board he has had concern expressed about the many watershed lakes in Carroll County.
“They were built to last 50 years, and some of them are older than that,” he said. “They haven’t had much maintenance, and the water districts don’t have the money to maintain them.
“If any of those should break, it would devastate downstream within a mile,” he said. “We can ignore this problem, but one dam failed last year. A major break could devastate county roads and state highways. I don’t want to raise any taxes. I want us to write our drainage districts, state legislators, and federal representative and senators. We need them to help us get funding for the districts to be able to maintain these dams. We can ignore the problem or get ahead of it.”
The board agreed to work with Willis Engineering to write letters to government officials and drainage districts, expressing the need for maintenance on the dams.
• Some of the family of the late blues legend Mississippi John Hurt asked the board to give them permission to have a family cemetery on land where family members already are buried. After discussion, the board told the Hurt family that if they have a deed for the land, they will not need permission, but it appears the land is owned by Charles Spain.
Mullins said Spain has indicated to him that he’s willing to deed the land for the cemetery to the Hurt family. Mullins told the family to bring whatever documentation they can find and said the county will work with them.
