City works to restaff departments


Thursday, January 31, 2008
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City works to restaff departments

By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer

Two full-time and four part-time positions were filled in the Holly Springs Fire Department last week. And the city is advertising to fill vacant positions in the Street and Building and Grounds departments.

Mayor Andre’ DeBerry recommended the board fill vacancies in these departments now instead of waiting until spring because winter storms can wreak havoc and put demand on these departments.

The board of aldermen accepted the resignation of Darius Collins from the Information Technology Department with regrets. Collins has accepted a position with the county school district, DeBerry said.

“We lost an exceptionally good worker,” he said, before asking the board of aldermen to accept Collins’ resignation and advertise the vacant position.

In utility department business, general manager John Collins took care of some routine business and looked forward to future protection of the utility.

He requested two employees travel to Tupelo for training at Central Service Association - the company that handles the city’s utility billing. Collins also asked to advertise for landscaping quotes for work to be done at the new Coldwater Substation near Mt. Pleasant.

The board also authorized Collins to move a part-time employee to full-time to handle meter readings while two other readers recuperate from illnesses.

Collins recommended, and the board approved, an agreement with Pangean-CMD as a consultant in event the utility experiences any dangerous spills.

The consultant group, which acts as a coordinator during environmental spills, does not charge a fee unless it is called to handle a spill and necessary clean-up, Collins said.

“Our primary concern is the substations and we are building mounds around the transformers to prevent run-off if a spill occurs,” Collins said.

He said of the two quotes he obtained for services, Pangean-CMD provided the most complete set of quotes for specific types of spills. Should a spill occur, the company would coordinate clean-up efforts with appropriate companies and with the Environmental Protection Agency, Collins said.

In other business, the mayor and board:

learned the city has been approved for a $250,000 first-time homebuyer grant. First-time home buyers must be renting space within the city limits to be eligible to apply for a loan under the provisions of the grant.
heard from the mayor that Waste Connections Inc. has asked for a sanitation rate hike based on the need for a fuel cost adjustment. The new rate Waste Connections will charge the city is $9.66 per garbage container unit. The city’s sanitation fee will be added to the $9.66 when customers receive their sanitation bill.

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