Mayor asks county for paving
Holly Springs Mayor Sharon Gipson is asking the Marshall County Board of Supervisors for assistance with paving of streets with it’s equipment.
The city would provide the materials and the road department is being asked to operate the asphalt paving equipment.
Gipson, on her second visit to the board of supervisors, asked if road manager Mario Jeffries could be available to ride over city streets to determine which ones the county could help with.
“You do know this is not paving season?” asked District 1 supervisor Charles Terry.
Gipson said she just wants to look at it.
“We understand you can’t do asphalt and concrete until the temperatures are up,” she said.
“Just what do you want to do?” Terry asked.
“Meet with Mario to see if it’s something you can do,” the mayor said. “Then you can vote it up or down.”
Terry asked if the city wants to use county services to place asphalt or for hauling asphalt and paving.
“Mario will be able to put his eyes on certain streets,” Gipson said. “We can’t do all of those. The funding is not there for the entire project. My concern is we want to look with Mario.”
District 3 supervisor Terry Rodgers had reservations.
“Is this going to open up a can of worms?” he asked. “We would be asked to go into the municipalities.”
“That’s a good question,” Terry said. “To set a precedent. Would this be a small item. We have streets to pave ourselves. It could very well open up a can of worms. We are not a contractor.”
Gipson said she is not asking for help with larger streets.
“We are also in the county and the county seat,” she said.
House representative John Faulkner dropped in the board room on his way back to the state capitol. He said he spoke with Rep. Bill Kinkade and Massengill and will meet with Sen. Neal Whaley “to try to get some things across the finish line.”
District 4 supervisor George Zinn III asked if there are going to be increases in sales taxes.
Faulkner said the bill has passed the House and is on its way to the Senate.
Terry asked what increases in sales tax will cover.
“On groceries, but not all groceries?” he asked.
Faulkner said grocery tax is something that has been talked about for years.
“We want to get the grocery tax cut when we cut $2.4 billion from the state budget,” Faulkner said. “We would have to cut services somewhere, so you must increase sales tax. I was told if supervisors are on board with it, if you didn’t opt in, you would lose your State Aid road program money.”
He said the sales tax increase being talked about is over 1.5 percent that would be phased in over 10 years to eliminate the state tax.
Chancery clerk Nicole Phelps reported the claims docket at $676,255. County administrator Tim Powell:
• submitted travel requests for justice court judges to attend the state conference and travel for the Veterans Service Officer Barbara Moore to train in Oxford.
• submitted a pay request for $71,441 from Elliott and Britt Engineers for work on Project Poppy. The state reimburses the county for the expense.
• presented a request from Sheriff Kenny Dickerson to purchase three 2019 Dodge Chargers from Missouri. The cost for the vehicles and striping comes to $83,532 and the vehicles are very low mileage, two with 11,000 miles and one with 16,000. The board approved lease purchase of the vehicles if there is not sufficient money on hand to pay for the vehicles outright.
The county is waiting on ad valorem tax collections to bring in sufficient money to operate on.
• approved pay request #12 from Yancey Brothers Construction for $170,640 for work on Del Stover Drive.
• approved a measure to raise mileage reimbursement to 70 cents per mile to match the state standard.
Board attorney Amanda Whaley Smith asked for permission to bid out 132 firearms that were forfeited in the sheriff’s department.
“They only can be bid out to dealers, not to the public,” Terry said.