Supervisors elect new officers

By SUE WATSON Staff Writer

The Marshall County Board of Supervisors elected officers and made appointments at the Jan. 6 meeting of the board of supervisors.

District 1 supervisor Charles Terry was reelected as president of the board and District 4 supervisor George Zinn III was reelected as vice-president for the 2025-2026 year.

All individuals on the list of board appointments who served last year were reappointed.

Two individuals who are on contract, consultant Gary Anderson and Susie Hill with the Chancery Clerk’s office, were also approved for yearly contracts.

There was discussion about renewing Anderson’s contract which was also joined with discussions of proposed projects with Sen. Neil Whaley at the table.

District 5 supervisor Ronnie O’Neil Bennett asked Anderson to come to the table before the vote to renew his contract. He said he voted no on renewing Anderson’s contract last year.

“What have you brought to benefit in the last year for the county?” Bennett asked.

Anderson said he has tried to get funding for the railroad overpass at Byhalia and for the widening of Red Banks Road.

“We were able to get $18 million on the House side and the Senate did not fund,” Anderson said.

He said after Marshall County got $390 million from County got $390 million from the Legislature for the battery plant project, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann decided more money was needed for roads elsewhere. About $500 million funding was to go to the rest of the state, he said.

The Senate cut out everything the House passed for the Byhalia Road project, he said.

“Did you put in Potts Camp railroad overpass?” Bennett asked, saying the funding for the overpass has been on the county’s legislative request for 25 years.

“We matter, too,” he said. “I really wish you had fought for the overpass at Potts Camp, too. How many lives have to be lost, at the end of the day?”

Anderson said the county needs to prepare a new resolution requesting the House and Senate approve a new bill.

Sen. Whaley joined the discussion beside Anderson.

He said the initial funding of the battery plant in the county was received, but the Mississippi Department of Transportation is addressing the needs of the central district now.

“Constituents say they do not want the Red Banks Road project,” Whaley said. “We continue to look for funding opportunities in the Potts Camp and Byhalia bridge overpass project. And the Blackwater Bridge project is important in the area. It brings a certain value.”

He said the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad continues to block traffic at Potts Camp for periods of up to 30 minutes at a time and ambulances can’t cross when the train is stopped on the tracks. One person may have lived if the ambulance had gotten through, he said.

Whaley said he is in his eighth session in Jackson.

“Coming in, I was learning,” he said.

Anderson said the legislature has a $500 million surplus.

Allocations won’t be decided until the end of the session, Whaley said.

“People will hear about excess money. You don’t spend every dollar you have,” Whaley said. “The legislature puts some money into the rainy day accounts. Part of the $500 million goes to education and to the ERBR (Emergency Road and Bridge) and MDOT programs, but not all makes it down to the county level. But the county benefits from that money. There’s a tremendous amount of money that comes into the county.

“We are learning to realize where these pots of money are and find ways to apply that. We won’t know until later in the session.”

Terry said some of that money needs to be spent on the south end of the county.

He said the county is not required to hire a consultant or lobbyist but the Mississippi Association of Supervisors likes counties to have it.

Board attorney Amanda Whaley Smith said the board needs to resubmit the resolution.

“When some counties get growth, other counties get jealous,” she said.

Anderson said the point that a person (allegedly) died waiting for the ambulance to cross the tracks should be put in the resolution, as well.

He said this 90-day session will see by the end of January bills being approved by the House and Senate.

Whaley said legislators like bill requests in early, by the 10th of January, because everything moves through the committees very quickly.

Anderson recommended members of the board come to Jackson to meet with legislatures because bills get turned down. By the end of February the House and Senate will vote on funding.

Whaley said each body has certain bills they want passed. He said the lieutenant governor often discusses folding a bill into another bill, if it doesn’t get into the first bill.

Zinn said at one point the railroad had been willing to share costs of the overpasses.

Whaley said BNSF has changed ownership now.

Bennett said he is trying to show a critical need for both overpasses. He said his constituents ask him all the time what Anderson is bringing to the table.

The board then voted on a motion to retain Anderson and it passed by vote of 3-2 with Bennett and District 2 Johnny Walker voting against the motion.

Hill’s contract was approved.