The Leflore County Board of Supervisors on Monday gave conditional approval of a $5,000 donation to the Greenwood Ministerial Alliance, subject to Board Attorney Joyce Chiles researching the legality of funding a faith-based organization.
The Rev. Greg Plata of Immaculate Heart of Mary and St. Francis Catholic churches in Greenwood made the plea for the alliance.
“Churches in the area give to the alliance, but it is not enough,” Plata said.
Plata told the board that the city has pledged $5,000 in support of the alliance’s activities helping the poor in the community and asked supervisors to do the same.
The alliance offers everything from overnight shelter to meals to help with electric bills, he said. Many of its efforts benefit the elderly. The alliance’s Benevolence Fund is strapped for cash and is available to those in need who might not be part of a church community, Plata said.
District 2 Supervisor Robert Moore, participating in the meeting by speaker phone, expressed concern over whether it’s legal for the board to support a faith-based organization.
District 1 Supervisor Sam Abraham asked Plata if the alliance would be willing to hold an annual public meeting to inform the community of its activities and to receive input. Plata said the organization would.
Abraham moved to approve $5,000 from the board’s common pool of funds, but Moore continued to express reservations. Chiles agreed to look into the matter.
Abraham offered to give the full amount from his allotted funds for the year if the board didn’t want to support the effort. District 4 Supervisor Wayne Self offered to use some of his funds as well.
District 5 Robert Collins said the board had previously agreed it would stop handing out funds to groups not identified in the county budget and urged caution.
Abraham moved that the board give the alliance $5,000, with $4,000 coming from his designated funds and $1,000 from Self’s, subject to Chiles finding that such a donation is legal.
The motion was approved unanimously.
In other county business:
• Newly appointed Greenwood Leflore Hospital Board member Freddie White-Johnson appeared before the supervisors to thank them for appointing her. Johnson will replace Gladys Flaggs at the end of November when Flaggs’ term expires.
“I will do whatever is needed to make the hospital productive again,” she said.
Johnson is director of the Mississippi Network for Cancer Control and Prevention and founder and president of the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation. Her husband, Larry “Kite” Johnson, is a former county supervisor.
• Pete Reeves of the USDA Rural Business Opportunity Group, who appeared before the board Nov. 7, asked the board to approve partnering on a $289,500 grant proposal to renovate a building at 600 County Road 514 in Itta Bena.
Ansar Development Corporation and general contractor/owner Abdul Jarif plan to open a mini-mart/gas station in that location if they can secure funds for renovation. USDA Rural Development out of Grenada has determined that the project meets the requirements for the grant that would require no matching funds from the county.
But as in the previous discussion, supervisors expressed concern over the county’s role.
Moore said that he wants to see the county supporting small economic development projects but needed clarification on what the county’s responsibilities would be in this case.
“The county is administrator of the grant,” Reeves said, “to assure that the money is spent correctly.”
Moore asked what was the county’s responsibility for the project once the money was spent and what would happen if the business went “belly up.” Reeves said he didn’t have answers to those questions.
Moore recommended that the board “get our folks together to talk about our role in this grant” before approving.
The discussion was tabled until the Nov. 28 meeting.
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
