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Officials unsure about districts By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer There
is no consensus among the Mississippi Association of Supervisors to ask
for a blanket moving forward of the March 1, 2011, candidate qualifying
deadline, said Gary Anderson, a consultant for the Marshall County
board. He recently told supervisors not enough
counties are expecting to have to redraw supervisor district lines, so
there is not much interest in a legislative bill to move qualifying
deadline up. Some counties that may be affected
by shifting populations include Madison, DeSoto, Rankin and Lafayette,
he said. Marshall and Tate counties may not have to move supervisor
district boundaries. “MAS says each county should
start looking at statistics now - building permits and voter
registrations the last 10 years - so when the county receives census
data, it can more quickly act on it,” Anderson said. “I expect someone
will dump a bill in the hopper in January but I do not think the bill
will have enough support to move the candidate qualifying deadline
forward.” Supervisors asked about a local and
private bill, but county administrator Larry Hall said that would come
too late, close to March 1 when the session ends, to be of any use. Anderson
suggested the county begin to look at areas of growth and hold meetings
in the districts that may be impacted, such as 2 and 3, areas in the
north of the county experiencing the most growth the last decade.
Meetings will satisfy public participation requirements of
redistricting, he said. In other business,
chancery clerk Chuck Thomas announced that the Public Employees
Retirement System contributions will likely be going up again in 2011.
Currently employers contribute 12 percent of the employees’ salary into
the fund and employees pay 9 percent. Thomas said there are currently
about 160,000 employees paying into PERS and 80,000 retirees drawing
checks. Chancery and circuit clerks, however,
are treated as self-employed and must contribute 21 percent or both the
employer and employee sides into the fund. They also must pay both
sides of the Social Security tax, Thomas said. In other business, the Marshall County Board of Supervisors: •
discussed meeting with Benton County officials to work on a
Marshall/Benton Alliance - similar to the Pontotoc/Union/Lee Alliance
that successfully brought Toyota America to Blue Springs. •
heard a report of road and bridge work. With weather being
satisfactory, paving has continued on Misty Ridge Road, off Isom Chapel
Road, and on Hubbard Road, said Larry Hall, county administrator. A
pipe that had washed out on Landfill Road is also being replaced. •
dedicated the November 1 board of supervisors meeting to the memory of
Mary Gaiter, who lived to be 103 years of age. Gaiter was a resident of
Wilson Golden Road in supervisor George Zinn’s district.
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