SWCD commish working with board to fix up Merchant Park
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Lewis Goins made an offer that the Jones County Board of Supervisors just couldn’t refuse.
The longtime commissioner of the Jones County Soil and Water Conservation District told board members that if they’d send letters to Sen. Roger Wicker and Rep. Mike Ezell, his agency would help “take care of everything else” in a $275,000 proposed project at Merchant Park in Ellisville.
“We can do a six-month turnaround on this ... and it will be beautiful,” Goins told the board.
He and a Natural Resources Conservation Service engineer went to the ballpark earlier this month at the request of Supervisor Larry Dykes to check out concerns about erosion and other problems as the weather and youth leagues begin to heat up.
“At the current rate of erosion, the holes will double in two years, the engineer said,” Goins reported, adding that the deep holes and ditches are dangerous and hold water that become breeding places for mosquitoes besides being “an eyesore.”
Goins was hoping to secure funding for the project through the NRCS, but no money was available for the park’s needs. The NRCS can, however, provide technical assistance, and Goins said he would help supervisors go after a special appropriation from Mississippi’s federal officials.
“Just get your board attorney (Danielle Ashley) to write letters to Sen. Roger Wicker and Rep. Mike Ezell,” he said, adding the NRCS would take care of the engineering, hiring a contractor and supervising the progress. Board President Johnny Burnett suggested sending a letter to Rep. Michael Guest, too, since his district dips into Jones County now.
The work — estimated at $274,250 — would include lining ditches with concrete or rip-rap and replacing culverts. Getting a special appropriation would cover 100 percent of that cost while the NRCS would only fund 80 percent. The SWCD and NRCS are both under the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“We’re going to get this done,” Goins said.
In other business, Amanda Brownlee and Jones Brogdon petitioned the board to make Russell Lane in Moselle a public road. There are more than two dozen residents on the road, some of whom are on hospice care, and the dirt road has potholes that hold water, Brownlee said. Brogdon offered to use his own equipment to get the road and ditches up to standards if the county will then maintain it.
Burnett said that two supervisors would be appointed to advise what the needs are and assess if it can be added to the road registry after the work is completed.
The board also agreed to draft a letter, along with the city, to residents and businesses along Hillcrest Drive to explain that a paving project that was planned for there is having to be delayed until State Aid funds are available for the $2.1 million estimated cost.
Jones County Sheriff’s Department grant administrator Lance Chancellor got permission to apply for grants from Homeland Security and Project Safe Neighborhoods, for amounts ranging from $30,000 to $50,000, and $20,000, respectively. Both grants pay 100 percent, with no matching funds required, he said.
The county received single reverse-auction bids for 20-yard and 13-yard garbage trucks at prices of $269,139 and $247,464, respectively, with three-year buy-back plans for $125,000 and $70,000. The garbage service also got the OK to enter into an agreement with Graphite Payments to begin taking credit-card payments.
Supervisor Phil Dickerson got approval to finish work on an emergency bridge repair on Shorty Ekes Road, which is a dead-end road. Two pilings were having to be replaced and he expected the work to be complete by the end of the week.
School-bus turnarounds were approved for 18 Robert Adams Road (Beat 1) and 4912 Old Highway 15 South (Beat 3).
Supervisors also gave the OK for South Central Regional Medical Center to sell a piece of property just south of Jefferson Street at the appraised cost of $26,000. SCRMS CEO Doug Higginbotham described it as “an irregular-shaped” piece of property.
Travel was approved for:
• Deputy Coroners Ernest Hollingsworth and Don Sumrall to go to Gulfport for a conference later this month, and for Sheriff Joe Berlin, Warden Mike Sumrall and Ashley to attend a law enforcement risk-management conference in Flowood next month.
The board also nominated Danny Shows to serve on the board of the South Mississippi Planning and Development District.
Supervisors also pledged support for Ellisville Merchants’ Association Easter Egg Hunt, golf tournaments for the Jones College Alumni Association and Veterans Memorial Museum, and for an upcoming SuperTalk midday show with Gerard Gilbert and the Eagle Hour that will feature Jones County.
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