Leflore County is considering adding GPS devices to its fleet in an effort to improve accountability and productivity.
County Administrator Sam Abraham proposed the idea to the Board of Supervisors Monday, and the board voted 3-2 to advertise for bids for a company to provide the satellite devices.
Supervisors Wayne Self, Phil Wolfe and Robert Collins voted for getting the bids, and Robert Moore and Preston Ratliff voted against it.
Ratliff asked what the difference is between the current mileage reports the county gets and the GPS system.
Abraham said there’s a big difference. The GPS devices will tell where a vehicle is, how fast it’s going and how long it has been operating, he said.
For example, they can be used to track how many hours a road grader operated during a month and then determine how many graders the county needs based on that data, he said.
Moore asked if the county would have to hire an additional employee to monitor the vehicles, and Abraham said it would not.
Abraham said he’d been talking with a GPS provider, Fleetmatics, for about a year about the program.
The Greenwood City Council signed a deal with Fleetmatics in November 2010 to install the tracking devices on all 75 of the city’s vehicles.
The tracking devices cost the city about $3,000 per month, and the city will own the boxes after three years. Fleetmatics installs and services the units.
Greenwood officials couldn’t be reached for comment this morning about how it has worked out.
Ratliff had made a motion to delay advertising for bids, and Moore seconded. Moore said he wanted to see the city operation and wait until the first of the year for a vote.
Later, Ratliff tried to withdraw his motion, but Moore refused to withdraw his second. The motion failed 3-2 with Self, Wolfe and Collins against.
Also Monday:
• The board delayed transferring four parcels near the landfill to the Mississippi Department of Transportation for a project to widen U.S. 49 until the county can get its own appraisal.
That vote followed a lengthy conversation with an MDOT engineer and right-of-way acquisitioner.
Later in the meeting, Ratliff criticized the delay, saying the county was holding up a $14 million project to haggle over $2,000 or $3,000.
Self said the project isn’t scheduled to begin until the summer and pointed out that the MDOT engineer said there was no hurry. Self said the appraisal should be ready in two weeks.
Wolfe questioned why Ratliff didn’t bring up those concerns while the MDOT representatives were there and the board was discussing the issue.
“Childish,” Wolfe said.
• Road Manager Lennon Powell said Eugene McLemore, the District 3 road foreman, died Monday while on the job. Employees found him slumped over in his truck after leaving the county barn in Schlater, Ratliff said.
“He was a dedicated employee and a real good friend,” Ratliff said.
• The board voted to allow county crews to use a trackhoe to help fix a broken water main in Itta Bena.
• Contact Charlie Smith at csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
