Jefferson recommends AT&T
Holly Springs IT director Derrick Jefferson is recommending the city and the Holly Springs Utility Department switch telephone and Internet service to AT&T.
A one-time installation cost for the services is $10,160, he said. It will provide a directory and the monthly bill will be $3,106, he told the Holly Springs Mayor and Board of Aldermen.
Currently, the city manages its own phone service, he said.
During power outages a generator kicks in.
“The grid, I can’t have no downtimes,” he said, adding that during the ice storm he had to stay in his office to manage the phone system.
“AT&T is better for the city and eventually CSA (Central Service Agency) will upgrade, so we can have our own call center,” Jefferson said. “The receptionist will be able to get the address of the caller who is reporting the problem.
“I am currently using my cell phone as a hotspot to stream this meeting.”
Ward 3 alderman Colter Teel asked if Jefferson has talked with the utility department about changing Internet service.
“I spoke with AT&T and they run fiber,” Jefferson said.
He said the cost of a fiber splicer would run $15,000.
“You get them (AT&T) to do all that and set up a directory,” he said. “It will be great city-wide. It will roll over to my cell phone if I’m out on the streets.”
“I definitely think we need an overhaul,” said Ward 4 alderman Patricia Merriweather.
Next up was Mike Slaughter with Slaughter and Associates out of Oxford, who has served the city as a city planner. Also with him was attorney Chad Mask who represented the city in developing the annexation study and plan under the Kelvin Buck administration. The annexation ordinance was adopted by the city right before the COVID-19 pandemic March 3, 2020.
Recent activities on the annexation saga have been a strategy session in Chancery Court and the continuance of the trial to the end of June.
Mask reviewed actions since September 2021, after the current administration took office.
The case was set to go to trial in late June 2021 and covered four areas to be annexed. But some areas did not want to be annexed, particularly the area south of the city at the race track and a very large residential area east of the city on Higdon Road.
“Mayor Gipson reached out to me and didn’t want to annex at the time,” Mask said.
He said a status conference on the annexation ordinance has been held about every four months since Gipson came into office.
It was recently continued by Chancery Judge Little for August 30.
“It’s my understanding the last meeting in May the board voted to annex the Marshall Steakhouse and race track area,” Mask said. “There was a veto.”
Mask said Mayor Gipson asked him to come up and review the ordinance.
“I represent the City of Holly Springs,” Mask said. “It’s my job but I will do my best to represent you and to advise Judge Little where this is headed.”
Mask laid out three possibilities.
He can tell Little the city is going forward with the ordinance as reduced in March or April 2021, or advise the court the city has directed him to further cut the annexation plan back to the reduced areas. The third option is the city may rescind the annexation ordinance en toto.
He said the mayor’s veto will kick the annexation plan back to its original ordinance passed in March 2020 under Buck.
Slaughter said he has not been asked to revise the ordinance and estimate what it would cost the city.
“Mr. Slaughter can certainly do that from a legal standpoint,” Mask said. “I can do whatever this board tells me to do.”
He said in August he would set a trial date, but if the ordinance is rescinded the case will not go to trial.
“We voted on (annexing) two areas last time,” said alderman-at-large Dexter Shipp.
Gipson said the city would have to pay to provide services to new areas, which would include attorney’s fees and Slaughter’s fee.
“We have to look at everything involved,” she said. “It’s quality, not quantity and would have to have taxpayers pay more to do this.”
With those remarks, attorney John Perry recommended the discussion go into executive session.
In other business, the board of aldermen:
• approved travel for fire chief Rodney Crane to go to state auction to purchase up to 10 used vehicles which total cost would not exceed $50,000.
• authorized travel for Vernita Raimey, Pearly Jones and Shawanna Moton to take dispatcher training seminars.
• approved travel for Human Resources director Pat Dawson to attend training in June.
• approved payment of $75,575 to Fifer & Associates for pay application #1 on renovations and additions at the Holly Springs Fire station.
• authorized payment of $600 to American Leak Detect for service at the Multipurpose Center.
• approved travel for Mike Moore to attend Chaplain training at the Mississippi Fire Academy.
• approved training for Allan Hall to attend firefighter fitness training at the Mississippi Fire Academy in June.
• approved training for Pamela Lewis to attend the Building Officials Association of Mississippi Summer Conference in Gulfport.
• received $152,025 in April Sales tax.
• transferred $900 to operating fund from ABC Liquor Tax.
• received $33,358 from April Tourism Tax and approved payment of $16,679 to Holly Springs Tourism and Recreation Bureau.
• received $2,043 from April Tourism tax and authorized payment of $1,021 to Holly Springs Tourism Bureau.
• approved payment of $2,967 to Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration as April’s Municipal Court Settlement.
• approved payment of $294 to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety as April’s Municipal Court Settlement.
The board and mayor went into closed session at 6:35 p.m. To discuss litigation and personnel. After executive session the board authorized an agreement with IMS Engineers to remove water lines on Highway 178 East in collaboration with the Mississippi Department of Transportation.
The board also approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the State of Mississippi to obtain EXCITE software for the police department.
EXCITE is a World Wide Web search engine.