Leflore County Road Manager Jerry Smith and Engineer Shane Correro updated the Board of Supervisors Monday on work the county has been doing to keep roads open and houses from flooding.
Correro said he has worked to keep pumps going in low-lying areas where 8 inches of rain surrounded homes and closed roadways. He said some of the pumps needed maintenance and others weren’t large enough to meet the task.
District 5 Supervisor Robert Collins said the county needs to look at prices for improved pumps in the Glendale subdivision. The main roads in that subdivision intersect in low areas that continually flood in heavy rains. Last week’s flooding brought deeper levels of water.
Correro said the county needs eight new pumps to service Glendale and Browning. Two of the Browning pumps would be installed in a new pumping station, which would require drainage ditches to be dug to direct the water to the station.
District 2 Supervisor Reginald Moore said U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson’s office advised him to complete and submit grant applications for federal assistance to alleviate flooding problems in the Browning community.
Collins said people in the flooded areas need to know that pumps can’t put the water into the river when floodgates are closed in culverts built through the levees. When the river rises to the stage where it is now, with the Yazoo a couple of feet over flood stage, the culverts are actually below water level and closed to keep the river from flowing through the culverts and flooding the low-lying areas.
Smith handed supervisors a two-page list of roads closed, sandbagged or otherwise affected by flooding.
“All I can say is we got a lot of water,” Smith said.
He urged people who lived in areas with impassable roads to stay in touch with elderly relatives and neighbors to determine if they were safe inside their homes.
“We are pumping water,” Smith said. “Water’s coming up now in places I have never seen it before.”
Roads listed as closed include John Pittman Drive and county roads 20, 297, 550, 520. 542, 527, 523, 136, 280, 286, 287, 288, 513, and 547. Also closed are Brentwood Drive in Greenwood and West Church Street in Sidon.
The county distributed 2,787 sandbags between Wednesday and Monday but has 315 more in reserve.
Roads in every district in the county have been affected by the rain and swollen rivers.
County road crews also assisted Heartland Catfish, America’s Catch, Robertson Fabrication, Sanders & Sanders Funeral Home, Transmission Plus, Faith Temple Church of God in Christ, and the town of Sidon with flooding problems.
In other business Monday:
• Supervisors extended for one year the contract of Ed Hargett, consultant with the county jail, at $4,000 per month. Hargett is a career prison manager and formerly served as warden at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
• Supervisors approved the donation of shelving units long-abandoned at the former Florewood State Park to the Museum of the Mississippi Delta. Museum Executive Director Cheryl Thornhill said she had noticed the shelves last year on a visit to the facility and believes they could be used for exhibits that are in storage at her museum.
• Supervisors approved a request by Chancery Clerk Christine Lymon to move funds within the budget to cover expenditures. Among those covered was a request from newly elected Chancellor Willie J. Perkins Sr. for $8,006 in new office furniture, including an executive desk for $2,879; a computer credenza, $2,199; an executive chair, $829; two office chairs, $799 each; and a rug for $499. The board originally balked at the bill and asked Lymon to negotiate, but the amount didn’t change. District 1 Supervisor Sam Abraham voted against the transfer of funds in which the expenditure was included.
• Supervisors discussed but didn’t act on ways to pressure people who owe the county more than $1.2 million in uncollected garbage fees. Lymon said she discussed the matter with other officials in other counties, including some who had hired collection agencies but thought the effort failed to produce results. Lymon indicated she wanted to find a lawyer who would take on the collections for a fee to collect not only overdue garbage fees but also outstanding justice court fines.
District 3 Supervisor Anjuan Brown asked if the constables the county uses to serve lawsuits could be used to collect overdue bills, but Board Attorney Joyce Chiles said she didn’t know if they would be allowed to handle money.
Moore suggested the county should come up with guidelines to narrow the number of bills owed, suggesting that if a bill was owed for more than five years, the person could be assumed to have moved or died. Chiles noted the county couldn’t choose to waive certain debts. She also asked if anyone was working to determine if people had moved away or died. Chiles suggested justice court clerks be assigned the task.
•Contact Gavin Maliska at 581-7235 or gmaliska@gwcommonwealth.com.
