Autry concerned about email phishing

In a report on courthouse matters, circuit clerk Monet Autry said she is concerned that phishing is becoming a problem.

“My concern is getting phishing emails every day and, if it shuts down my system, it probably will affect the rest of the county,” she said at the Oct. 17 meeting of the board of supervisors.

Autry said the irregularities about the phishing seems to be from unknown individuals or email addresses that inquire about voting and marriage licenses and she does not know if the inquiries are legitimate or not.

County administrator Tim Powell assured the board that he already has county employees investigating the situation.

District 4 supervisor George Zinn III expressed worries that people are constantly throwing out litter on the road sides and in the ditches. He said most people are excited about not having to pay for household solid waste pickup but the littering continues.

He said the county should to do something to find out who is throwing out garbage on the roadsides and prosecute them.

District 1 supervisor Charles Terry asked Zinn for suggestions.

“How do you prosecute a person you do not know - people throwing out a couch or something?” he asked.

Zinn recommending putting cameras in trouble spots.

“This board already has an ordinance against it,” said District 5 supervisor Ronnie Joe Bennett. “There is nothing more this board can do. These folks are people who have done it all their life. They used to burn it.”

Bennett said people have been taken to court for littering and the justice court judge lets them go.

“Sounds like you are spinning your wheels for nothing,” he said.

“It’s a major national issue,” Terry said.

Board attorney Amanda Whaley Smith said the problem could be something Crime Stoppers could help with.

Zinn said perhaps a person who sees dumping and gets a picture could go to court to testify in a case of dumping and the county could offer a reward for their evidence and testimony.

Terry said the city has asked the county to grade about a mile of Hudsonville Road. He made a motion to have county crews do the work to grade the road from Eddie Lee Smith Drive to Finley Road.

Taylor said the county has made agreements with the Town of Byhalia where county paid half the cost of materials to pave a road. Or, the county can just grade the stretch of road.

Terry brought up new county office space that is being purchased.

He said coroner James Richard Anderson has asked to have his office space moved to the new District 1 medic station when it is built or to go with zoning when it moves to the old Medicaid building the county has purchased.

Terry said he recommends the county sell the old buildings and property now used by zoning.

Chancery clerk Chuck Thomas said Steve Gaines at the Northeast Mississippi Community Services building should also be moved to another location.

“It (services) all needs to be centralized,” Bennett said.

“Sell (the old buildings) and get it back on the tax rolls,” Thomas said.

County administrator Tim Powell read off a list of old equipment that the county may want to keep or to sell.

The board wants to keep a truck, a D7 and D8 dozer, a Ferguson roller, and a couple of flatbed trucks. The county may take a 1998 flatbed truck, a manlift, a 500-gallon asphalt trailer, and a scraper Catapillar, to auctions.

Thomas recommended the county go to surplus property to look at a military helicopter that can be purchased for pennies on the dollar.

Smith said the properties the county wants to sell must first be appraised before offices are moved into new buildings being renovated for zoning, community services and the coroner.