County meeting details response to Ice Storm

The Marshall County Board of Supervisors spent most of its February 2 meeting to responding to recovery efforts that took place immediately after the January 25 ice storm that wrecked the electric grid and left roads covered with three or more inches of sleet ice.

Supervisors were in the same boat as constituents, roughing it at home and dealing with complaints from some residents that the roads were not cleared of ice soon enough.

The streets in Holly Springs had been cleared around the square by Trey Thomas. Mayor Charles Terry arranged before the event for Thomas to come clear the streets.

County engineer Larry Britt had few pay requests.

“Everybody’s got a different situation, I understand,” he said. “I hope everyone has been safe.” Britt asked for approval of pay request #10 for $46,075 on the ARPA (American Recovery Plan Act) for the sewer project in the Hyline Drive area near Highway 72.

District 5 supervisor Ronnie O’Neil Bennett said Callicutt Road had two bridges where big oaks had fallen. Britt reported after taking a look at the bridges that the area had taken a big hit from the ice storm.

“For safety reasons, we need to look at it there. You got thousands of things in the mess up,” Britt said.

Zoning director David Johnson presented a beer license request for a new owner of the old Marianna Store. He said supervisors had approved himself and Gwen Payne to attend a flood plain workshop.

Supervisors air out frustrations

During the supervisors report, Ronnie O’Neil Bennett expressed his exasperation with the ramifications of the January 25 ice storm.

“This right here is a crap show for the whole county,” he said. “Tensions have gotten high. Please realize we had to cut our way through four to five inches of ice to get to people’s homes.”

District 1 supervisor Goston Glover said he understands why.

“People needed more help down there,” he said. “People were totally needy. I’m grateful everybody worked together. Tim (Powell) and Mario (Jeffries) did a great job. Mario had 60 employees to take care of.”

He said 99 percent of complaints in his district were about getting the roads open.

County administrator Tim Powell said complaints are to be expected.

“I’ve been through that many times,” he said.

District 2 supervisor Johnny Walker also praised the county employees.

“Everybody’s been busting their butts,” he said

He said supervisors and foremen needed to have prepared a week earlier because “one week before it was coming, we’ve got to have equipment ready to go.”

Bennett said there were only three trucks available to pretreat the roads.

“We can’t just open a (voting) precinct up,” he said. “We can turn heat on and allow people to come in and take a hot shower.”

Bennett said the county would need standby generators and showers to use community centers like in Laws Hill and Waterford.

“Somebody needs to work on this,” Walker said. “It’s (the ice/snow) has hung around this time.”

“It hit and got warm in two days in 1994,” Bennett said. “It was warm.”

“Jason (Motz) had done a good job,” Powell said.

Bennett said his dad Ronnie Joe said he got bored during the 1994 storm.

“Now Marshall County has resources, is in its big day. We have resources,” Ronnie Joe said.

Glover said he only received two negative phone calls from constituents.

“We need the fire department driveway done first,” District 3 supervisor Terry Rodgers said.

Walker played a phone call from a shouting angry constituent as an example of how some individuals were venting because roads were not cleared already.

Rodgers said the county should be able to pull up a map to go “see everything in your district.”

“I need to because a little skin was burned on my a— — ,” District 4 supervisor George Zinn III said in jest.

“I got only three negative calls,” Glover said. “You gotta know how to talk to a person.”

“We just need to praise our people,” Walker said, referring to the employees first response.

“Thanks goes to our contractors,” Bennett said.

Walker said the county needs to get plans dedicated to the cleanup.

“It’s going to take a minute,” Rodgers said. “There has been no declaration of an emergency. We already got our contractor to pick up (Looks Good). We need to get an RFP to declare an emergency and get our contractor.”

“So, when you hear from Trey (Construction), we tell them it’s already being assessed,” Bennett said.

“We can’t go on personal property,” said county administrator Tim Powell. “Federal people are bringing in their contractors. As of now it’s not the case. Get contracts in motion so we can be ready to hit the ground.”

Simpson Stroupe, buildings and grounds supervisor, said any work, in kind or volunteer, needs to be tracked and recorded for the purpose of reimbursement.

Powell said the federal program (FEMA) offers 75:25 assistance with counties paying 25 percent, but the state MEMA will pay 50 percent of the federal match or 12.5 percent of the counties share.

“If you have enough volunteers who keep track of it, you can use that as part of your match,” Powell said.

“My problem, we have so many elderly who can’t get out,” Bennett said.

Powell said FEMA can take months to get reimbursed for volunteer efforts.

“We’re trying to get us on the jump,” said Powell. “We have a contractor in place. We’re a step ahead, if we’ve got everything in place.”

Bennett said he saw volunteers using tractors to pull a tree out of the road.

“These old folks are less resilient,” he said.

“I’m not going to Jackson (to the meeting with the legislature) while our guys are up here,” Walker said.

Powell said he is calling the Hilton and can get reservations for rooms cancelled.

“The only money out is the registration fee,” he said.

Glover said he is going.

“I’m not telling nobody what to do, but I’m not going,” Bennett said.

Chancery Clerk Nicole Phelps provided items for action:• Cathy Hannah and two 911 deputies were approved for travel for training in Oxford.

• a travel request for William Granat was approved to attend first line supervision class.

• the government had extended the deadline to pay ad valorem property tax until March 3.

• compensatory time pay for a number of sheriff’s department employees was approved.

• the claims docket for $293,470 was approved.

Powell requested a discussion, pursuant to an emergency declaration from FEMA, and to get an emergency contract with Debris Tech to monitor debris removal.

Bennett asked if local people could be hired to work with debris cleanup, if they have the equipment to do it.

Powell said the county has a contract with Looks Great Services to pick up debris.

“I have a great area in my area, if we need to have a place to put it (debris),” Bennett said.

Zinn said the disposal company needs to be certified, if a private entity is offered work.

“The kicker is, if you can get it declared, Debris Tech is well versed in getting reimbursed with FEMA,” Powell said.

“We will use local when we can. Debris Teck has a bar code they can use to track what they do.”

Powell said roll-off dumpsters will be placed in the various supervisor districts.

Zinn asked for one at Laws Hill.

“We may want more dumpsters,” Walker said, “just to get the debris and household garbage. There’s a potential problem if people put debris in roll-offs. Dumpsters will be for household garbage. We just need to get that household garbage.”

Zinn asked how Mario Jeffries is coming with salting the roads.

“I still got solid ice,” he said.

Walker said he has gone through four or five grader blades for the motor graders trying to clear the roads.

Jeffries thanked the road and bridge crew for doing a good job in trying to de-ice the roads.

Jeffries said the roads are pre-treated with brine (salt water emulsion).

“We just need to work. We got to remember this is ice,” Walker said. “We’re not equipped to move ice. We need to pretreat in the future.”

Zinn said supervisors have talked for years about setting up warming centers.

Board attorney Amanda Whaley Smith said Leland Reed did a study on what it would take to set up warming centers and it would be very expensive to have bathrooms and people to run the centers.

“You have to have medical supplies,” he said.

“To use it, you must have a nurse and law enforcement there,” Stroupe said.

“You can stick showers in the backs of fire stations and open at night,” Powell said.

“You can consider a help center,” Stroupe said. “I have three stand-alone generators.”

Powell said Terry Byrd needed generators to back up the AS400 computer when the power is lost.

“A help center can help about eight people,” Powell said.

“Let’s talk more about this next time,” said board attorney Amanda Whaley Smith.

Walker said a staging area could be established where water could be available.

“You can put showers in a fire station,” Powell said.

Glover congratulated the response made by the sheriff’s department, “who did a wonderful job doing things on the road and putting their lives on the line every day. Picking up employees and getting them to work safely. I also thank each supervisor. We are working together.”

Dickerson said on several occasions traffic was backed up all the way to Byhalia.

“There were a lot of Lafayette County grading the roads with state graders,” he said.

“The state dropped the ball all the way,” Walker said.

Deputy Larry Rankin praised sheriff’s deputies.

“Those guys busted butt. Thank god we had so many 4- wheel drives. Jason Mills pulled several out. They did a wonderful job,” Rankin said.

He said he served in the military in New Orleans and he believes the county needs to develop an evacuation plan and practice doing mock exercises as does the military.

“911 goes down and you have no ears,” he said, adding that developing an emergency evacuation plan is useful for any type of emergency.

“You can come up with a plan for each agency,” he said.

“I still have no cell phone service and coverage is so spotty,” Bennett said regarding the situation in Potts Camp and his district.

“We need to go back to the CB radios,” he said. “We need CBs. Back in the day, everybody took care of everyone.”

Powell said CB radios are not expensive.

District 3 supervisor Terry Rodgers agreed.

“They need some kind of radios in there. They are not expensive,” he said.

Powell agreed.

The board held a public hearing on closing off the end of George Mann Road at Lake Center. The board approved the measure.

“We are not closing the road, just the entrance going into Lake Estates,” Bennett said.