Board of supervisors makes appointments
With six inches of snow/ice on the ground, Tuesday, Jan. 16, the Marshall County Board of Supervisors handled existing business in advance of an announcement Thursday by Gov. Tate Reeves of a major economic development project coming to the Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park.
The board approved appointments and dealt with several concerns and opportunities.
The South Reporter was unable to attend this meeting and followed up with an interview with District 4 Supervisor George Zinn III.
Zinn spoke out on the Alliance Hospital project and the need for the county’s ambulance service provider, LifeGuard, to cooperate with Alliance to transfer patients, once stabilized, to larger medical providers.
“Right now Alliance is a rural emergency hospital,” Zinn said.
That means it no longer keeps patients beyond the first 24 hours of admission. Patients are stabilized and then transferred to a larger facility, if needed, for further medical attention.
“The point is if a person went in and had, say, an artery cut, the hospital would stabilize them and they would be transferred,” Zinn said. “LifeGuard does not want to transfer a patient from Alliance to another facility.”
He said the board of supervisors had discussed the contract with LifeGuard and believed that the ambulance service, which has five ambulances stationed in Marshall County, had agreed to make transfers requested by Alliance Hospital.
He said there are also a lot of doctors offices and senior care facilities who want clients transported back and forth to and from senior care facilities for services such as doctors visits or other treatments.
“I think the ambulance service would do an agreement (with Alliance Hospital) and they are not doing that,” Zinn said. “I am concerned about residents of Marshall County. I would hope that we could move this forward.”
He said the agreement with LifeGuard to transfer patients for Alliance is not being implemented. He expects the issue to be brought back before the board of supervisors soon.
Zinn also spoke out about several shifting of employees to other departments. He said Simpson Stroupe with building and grounds, was transferred to Building and Grounds from the Road and Bridge Department by unanimous vote of the board.
Ricky Taylor, by unanimous vote, was put over the Marshall County Fairgrounds, a duty once covered by zoning administrator Ken Jones.
A vote to hire Marsha Taylor as assistant to Taylor passed by a vote of 3-2.
Zinn and District 1 supervisor voted nay on the motion to hire Marsha Taylor.
“I voted against it. That just seems to be a problem all around,” Zinn said.
Supervisors hired David Johnson to join Ken Jones at Zoning and to be trained as Jones replacement.
Zinn said Jones will be moved to work with the Marshall County Industrial Development Authority, after Johnson is trained to be zoning administrator.
Zinn said he made a motion, seconded by Terry, to list job openings. The motion failed with Zinn voting for the motion and all other supervisors opposing the motion.
Zinn said he thinks the job listing should be more transparent and all jobs available should be fair to the entire public.
The following appointments or reappointments were made at the Jan. 16 board meeting:
• Smith Whaley, PLLC, Board Attorney
•Administrator/Comptroller, Tim Powell
• Road Manager, Mario Jeffries
• Buildings and Grounds, Simpson Stroupe
• Payroll Clerk, Nicole Phelps
• County Engineer, Larry Britt
• E911 Coordinator, Cathy Hannah
• Public Defender-Youth Court, Amanda Smith
• Public Defender-Circuit Court, Lori Shaw and Robert Lomenick
• Justice Court Clerk, Heather Childress
• Zoning Administrator, David Johnson
• Fairgrounds Director, Ricky Taylor
• Veterans Service Officer, Barbara Moore
• Emergency Management, Leland Reed
• Safety Coordinator, O’Neil Wilkins
• Inventory Clerk, Donna Cooper
• Purchase Clerk, Renea Childress
• Receiving Clerk, Terrica Moss
• IT Director, Terry Byrd
• Arson Investigator, Royce Pegues