Building to be named in honor of Fant

The Marshall County Board of Supervisors has approved a measure to name the tax office building in downtown Holly Springs after W.R. “Bobby” Fant.

The board took up the matter when several people said naming the building after Fant, who recently passed away, was a good way to honor his service to the county as tax assessor/collector.

“He’s well deserving of it,” said supervisor Keith Taylor, who brought up the topic.

Fant took office in 1980 and set the bar for his employees working in the tax offices in Marshall County.

“I think it’s a great honor and his family would be appreciative,” said tax collector Betty Byrd, who was elected after Fant retired in 2003 and the job was split into two positions – collector and assessor.

Supervisors will hold a dedication ceremony after the lettering is installed on the building.

In other matters, supervisor George Zinn III asked for security cameras at the Chulahoma Educational Center. Chancery clerk Chuck Thomas also asked for more cameras at the courthouse. And Taylor asked for more surveillance cameras at the Byhalia Substation, which serves as a tax collector’s office, sheriff’s station and ambulance station. And some fire departments have requested cameras as well in their parking lots, Taylor said.

Larry Hall asked Terry Byrd to get a cost analysis.

Byrd reported to the board that there is a sale on the cameras now and it is a good time to invest in them at about one-fourth the usual cost.

In other business, Taylor asked whether the board would be interested in widening the roads in subdivisions from 22 feet, or 11 feet from the center line for each lane to from two to four feet more of paving.

County engineer Larry Britt was in favor of widening the requirements on future subdivision developments. He said it is something the county needs to look at because the county assumes the roads once the subdivision is substantially completed.

“It is something we need to look at if it won’t break the developer,” Britt said.

Larry Hall reported that the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has given the all-clear signal so the county can demolish the old Colonial Building on Old Highway 178 East.

Hall also reported on a meeting with the local committee working with the Chickasaw Project.

He said the committee is interested in developing Duck Pond as a migration trail site.

“They want to participate in preserving the Duck Pond area of Marshall County,” Hall said. “It is a priority site as a cultural and conservation and educational center.”

The site would be useful for families and school students to visit. Volunteers would show people around after the trail is developed.

Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks would be interested in the site, he said.

The committee wants to build restrooms and portray the history of the Chickasaw that predated the removal to Oklahoma in the 1830s. The site was an actual Chickasaw campground, Hall said.

Rare wild plants have been identified at the site.

The first Indian school, Martin Mission, on Marianna Road, is also a site that is to be recognized as the first Indian school in the territory.

Hall said there is a lot of history that predates the Civil War that can be brought out.

“They foresee it being a venue for people to come from all over,” Hall said.

The project brings private, non-profit partners and lots of good ideas, he said.