Leflore County supervisors on Monday heard a plea to fund a summer camp on robotics and drones for area youth, inspired by recent calls to address the problem of youth violence in the community.
Following a discussion, supervisors voted 3-2 to table the proposal from Ulysses Kelly, technology director of the Leflore County School District, and hear from others in the community.
Kelly told supervisors he came up with his idea for a summer camp after attending a forum last month in which community members talked about gun violence in Greenwood and Leflore County.
“I asked what could I do to inspire and guide youth toward a career path and hope for the future, and I came up with this idea.”
A math teacher for six years in the county schools before moving into administration, Kelly holds a degree in computer science from Jackson State University. He said kids are always asking him, when they see him flying his drone, how it works and how they can do it.
“In this program, over three full-day Saturday sessions, 30 kids will learn to fly a drone, how to build a robotics part, how to make the mathematical calculations for flying, and each kid will receive a personal drone at the end of the program,” Kelly said.
If approved, the attendees would also participate in a field trip to the Nissan manufacturing plant in Canton to see robots in action and to talk with engineers who program those robots.
Kelly gave the board an extensive written proposal, showing what would be needed to run the program for 10- to 16-year-olds. He requested $15,534 to fund it.
Board President Anjuan Brown asked which students Kelly was targeting for the program, and he said any of them who wanted to participate, “not just high-end students,” although he had not yet decided how participants would be chosen.
District 5 Supervisor Robert Collins asked if the program would reach to Itta Bena, Schlater and surrounding communities in the county. Kelly said he had not budgeted for transportation but would take it into consideration.
District 2 Supervisor Robert Moore expressed concern that Kelly was not aligned with a community-based organization, such as a church, to support his efforts. Kelly said members of his fraternity, Alpha Sigma Phi, had committed to help out with the field trip to Nissan.
Moore said he wanted to see “a little juice behind it” and moved to table the proposal.
Brown said the board has been asked to put someone else with a proposal on the next meeting’s agenda, but he agreed that steps needed to be taken now.
“This problem is not going away,” he said.
Kelly made an offer to pay $1,000 of the cost out of his own pocket if the board would fund the remaining $14,633.
Collins said lots of people had ideas for “quick” fixes but the problem is systemic and will eventually have to be dealt with by leadership, business leaders and the entire community.
Kelly passionately brought the discussion to a head.
“Do you understand that I work in the school system? That I see kids coming to school with holes in their shoes? Who wear the same clothes day after day? Who may come to school without having enough to eat?”
Moore, Collins and District 4’s Wayne Self voted for the motion to table the proposal, and Brown and District 1’s Sam Abraham voted against it.
Brown asked Kelly to bring his proposal back up at the June 25 meeting, when the board will hear from him and others.
The board went into executive session to discuss a personnel matter in the county’s emergency management division. Although no action was taken during the session, County Administrator Christine Lymon recommended that Fred Randle be named full-time emergency management director for the county. The board approved unanimously.
Randle previously worked part time as emergency management director and part time as a deputy in the Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff Ricky Banks said Randle will no longer be working as a deputy, effective upon accepting the job as full-time director of emergency management.
In other county business:
•Lymon announced that Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams has requested a meeting of county supervisors with the City Council at 5:30 p.m. June 19, immediately following the regular council meeting, to talk about a matter involving Greenwood Leflore Hospital.
It is presumed the issue to be discussed is naming a board member to an open seat on the five-member hospital board.
Recently, city officials informed the supervisors that the open position, which has for many years been a county appointee, is actually supposed to be mutually agreed upon by the two governmental bodies. The city has provided an attorney general’s opinion backing its position.
Last week, by a 4-1 vote, the supervisors said they want Edgar Bland, a computer consultant, to fill the position whether it remains a county appointee or becomes a joint city-county one.
•Supervisors approved a request from the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce for $5,000 in support of the June 28 Stars and Stripes in the Park event.
•Supervisors approved a list from the chancery clerk’s office of charge-backs on 2017 homestead exempt taxes. Those charge-backs apply to taxpayers who had outstanding debts to the county. Lymon said all citizens listed had been notified by mail.
•Supervisors approved striping Browning Road and replacing curbs and gutters on McKennedy Street, both in Moore’s district, each at a cost of an estimated $40,000 to $50,000.
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
