VAIDEN — Two landowners whose property is needed for a county bridge project attempted to settle the issue with the Carroll County Board of Supervisors on Monday but were unsuccessful.
County Attorney Kevin Horan said the county has made agreements to purchase land from eight of 10 landowners needed in a bridge project on County Road 183 but may have to go to court to settle with the last two landowners.
Daryl and Tammy Barrett told supervisors they wanted to try to settle with them since the county is going to litigate the matter if an agreement cannot be reached.
After going into executive session as advised by Horan, the board failed to agree with the Barretts on an amount of money to be paid for their land.
Chancery Clerk Sugar Mullins said land involved in the project has already been taken through eminent domain proceedings, and the county can go ahead with the project. But the county may have to go to court to negotiate payments to landowners for the property in the last two cases.
Mullins said the other landowner who has not made an agreement with the county is Erwin Thomas.
The board also heard a report from Circuit Clerk Durward Stanton, who said the county has had three inmate appeals as paupers in this past month, which makes the county responsible for all costs in an appeal. Currently, there is one costing the county $580 for Steadman Gilmore, who was recently convicted of burglary of a dwelling. He is appealing to the Mississippi Supreme Court.
“We have not had any of these appeals as paupers in the nine years I’ve been in office, but suddenly we’ve had three in one month,” Stanton said.
In other business the board:
• Discussed whether there were checks written from the chancery clerk’s office that did not appear on the claims report. Mullins told board members that there were sometimes checks written for bills that had to be paid at a certain time, such as employment security tax payments, but that all of those were in the actual board minutes, which lists every check written. Mullins said the auditor has not had any questions about any of them. After some discussion, Beat 4 Supervisor Claude Fluker asked that the board be given a report on checks not on the supervisors’ claim report so that supervisors would know of all expenses.
•Questioned whether phone service could be obtained at cheaper rates. Fluker said he would like to know if Southern Communications of Greenwood is giving the county the best rate it could get.
• Told Sarah Smith and Louise James that the county is not allowed to assist financially with a request for funeral expenses if a deceased person has a living relative. “It’s state law, not board policy,” District 5 Supervisor Rickie Corley said.
