Board Of Supervisors Meeting Report

COFFEEVILLE – With the exception of one change, reappointments to the Yalobusha County Economic Development District are on hold until the next county board meeting scheduled Jan. 23.
    The appointments were on the supervisors’ meeting agenda for the first meeting of the new term on January 3 in Coffeeville. Newly elected supervisor Lee McMinn appointed Bill Taylor to serve as District Three’s representative, but other appointments were put on hold after Board President Tommy Vaughn asked economic development director Bob Tyler if all the board members were actively engaged as board members.
    Tyler reported all but one board member routinely attends the monthly meetings held by his board.
    “Everybody else is pretty active,” he added.
    “I would like to talk about that a little bit,” McMinn responded. “I think these are very important positions. We really need to get people that are 100 percent involved. I know they will occasionally miss a meeting, but I think we need somebody that is really gungho in that position.”
    Although McMinn is new to the board, he is not unfamiliar with the county’s economic development authority after making it a campaign issue in 2007 when he ran unsuccessfully for the job.
    Responding to McMinn’s question, Tyler told supervisors he would check with each appointee to make sure they were willing to participate.
    The nine member board includes an appointee from each supervisor; one appointee from the mayor of each of the county’s municipalities and an atlarge appointee.
    Other actions taken in the January 3 and the subsequent January 6 board meetings include:
    • Heard an update from Yalobusha General Hospital Administrator Terry Varner about opening a health clinic in Oakland.
    “We are still on hold,” Varner explained, as hospital officials search for almost an acre of land to build the clinic.
    • Accepted a bid from Mechanics Bank as the county depository for the year. The Water Valley bank bid seventenths of a percent interest, down from 1.05 percent last year. This year marked the first time in recent history that Mechanics was the only financial institution tendering a bid to bank the county’s money.
    The sole bid created some concern because in past years the county has also accepted a bid from Renasant Bank as the secondary bidder.
    “Mechanics has in the past given us the best interest rate,” Board Attorney John Crow explained. But supervisors have also accepted Renasant’s bid for convenience for the county offices in Coffeeville, which  does not have a Mechanics Bank branch.
    • Approved two applications from logging companies to exceed the posted weight limit while hauling logs. Timberland Harvestors was granted an application for County Road 215 in District 1 and Harrison Logging was granted an application on County Road 110 in District 3. The county requires each applicant to post a $2,000 bond to cover potential damages to the roads before approval.
    • Tabled a request from Yalobusha County Extension Director Brent Gray to allow halfday rentals for the arena. Gray told supervisors that other portions of the county’s Multipurpose building can be booked for halfdays. The cost to book the arena for a full day is $100, Gray explained.
    • Approved a request from Sheriff Lance Humphreys to transfer $320 into his PIPE fund. This money is used for deputies to purchase drugs in undercover sting operations or to purchase information from informants, Humphreys told supervisors. Typically the money deposited into the PIPE fund comes from proceeds from drug seizures.
    • Entered executive session for just under an hour to discuss a personnel issue involving a countywide employee. Crow reported after the meeting that no action was taken by supervisors.
    Supervisors scheduled a recessed meeting Monday, Jan. 23, at 9 a.m. in the Coffeeville Courthouse.

COFFEEVILLE – Yalobusha General Hospital Administrator Terry Varner reported to supervisors that work was underway to transfer funds from the hospital to the county to pay off an outstanding bond issue from a 1998 nursing home expansion.
    At the January 3 supervisor meeting in Coffeeville, Varner told county officials that the hospital was strong enough financially to retire the bond after several county officials inquired about the bond.
    “We had a really good year this year. When it was brought up, the (hospital) board felt we were in a position where we could pay it off,” Varner said about the decision to retire the bond.
    The bond was floated back in 1998 after bids came in $1.1 million higher than the projected cost for the nursing home expansion. During that time the hospital was operating in the red, and the county agreed to borrow the money to cover the shortfall with a bond issue.
    Now, almost 13 years later,  $200,000 is owed on the bond and and the early payment would free up 1.8 mills currently assessed countywide to service the debt.
    Board president Tommy Vaughn also noted that a story in the Herald’s December 22 issue about the agreement between the county and hospital created a perception that there was friction between the two entities about the bond.
    “It wasn’t anything printed that wasn’t said in that meeting about the hospital,” Vaughn noted. “But after reading the article, a couple of people on the board were taken back a little bit. You can’t print everything that was said, but the statement was made time and again how much we appreciate the hospital. The job that you do,” Vaughn explained.
    “We will continue to support the hospital,” Vaughn told Varner and the public at the January 3 meeting.
    “There are no hard feelings, there was no wrong doing. It just didn’t all get printed,” Vaughn explained, an opinion that was shared by other county officials at the meeting.