CARROLLTON — Several fires were set in Carroll County, even after a countywide burn ban was declared, Volunteer Fire Department Coordinator Scott Montgomery told the Board of Supervisors on Monday.
Sixty-four of the state’s 82 counties are currently under a burn ban, according to the Mississippi Forestry Commission. That includes Leflore, Holmes, Montgomery and Grenada counties.
When asked if they knew about the burn bans, those in charge of the debris piles or bonfires answered no, Montgomery said.
He said he asked them, “Don’t you read the newspapers, listen to the radio or watch TV?”
Beat 5 Supervisor Rickey Corley shook his head and said, “I just don’t understand folks.”
Montgomery said he is searching for tanker trucks so that each volunteer fire department in the county will have extra water available when fighting fires. He said he hopes to add three more tankers that will be paid for out of the county fire levy fund.
“When you have to send someone to get more water, you waste time and lose manpower,” he said.
Montgomery said he has been in contact with ArTex Truck Center in Texarkana, Arkansas, which sells new and used trucks. They can and will modify vehicles to specifications. Montgomery, Beat 1 Supervisor Jim Neill and Beat 2 Supervisor Terry Brown agreed to travel to ArTex and look at the available inventory in the near future.
Also Monday, supervisors accepted a bid of $589,830.95 from J.J. Ferguson to repair the collapsed bridge on County Road 286 in Beat 1. All three bids on the project came in above the engineer’s estimate of $544,945.90.
The bridge collapsed on June 4, 2015, when the driver of a piece of the county’s heavy equipment attempted to cross it. There were signs on the bridge, which crosses Salem Creek, saying that it was closed to traffic heavier than 6,000 pounds. The county vehicle weighed about 30,000 pounds.
In other business:
• Carrollton-North Carrollton Recreational Park Director Brian Randall updated the board on the planned Haunted Nature Trail to be held on Saturday and Oct. 29 and 31.
The event is a joint fundraiser between the park and the J.Z. George High School Athletic Booster Club. The admission fee is $10 per person, and the park will receive 60 percent of the proceeds. The Carroll County Sheriff’s Department will provide security each day.
• Tambris Loggins of North Central Planning and Development asked the board about the possibility of locating donated permanent and larger office space that also has Wi-Fi connections.
The agency’s work-readiness training for youth ages 16-24 who are not in school and not working uses the boardroom at the Carrollton courthouse on Tuesdays. Loggins said that NCPD wants to expand the program.
She told supervisors that space is available in Vaiden and the county has funds allocated.
The supervisors agreed to help with her request.
• Carroll County School Superintendent Billy Joe Ferguson said that the school district’s Special Services building in North Carrollton needs repair and painting.
Randall said that the park’s inmate labor could do the job starting in November.
Ferguson said that the district would buy the supplies if supervisors could provide the labor.
The board agreed to the project.
