Pike County supervisors approved a request Tuesday from Keep Pike County Beautiful to pay in plants instead of cash for using the county multipurpose building.
KPCB director Tammy Strickland applied to rent the building Oct. 2 for an annual members banquet. Instead of paying the regular rental fee, she suggested planting crape myrtles on county property.
Keep America Beautiful recommends crape myrtles since they are good bee pollinators, she said. The arrangement will also help KPCB carry out an American native tree planting project.
Supervisors asked Strickland to meet with civil defense director Richard Coghlan, who manages the building, to decide where to plant the crape myrtles.
In other business, supervisors:
• Learned from justice court clerk Andranette Jordan that roof tiles fell in at the justice court building, revealing black mold underneath.
• Heard a request from data processing manager John Ivey to switch from Cable One to C Spire as Internet provider, at a cost of $1,240 per month, keeping Cable One as backup. Supervisors will ask board attorney Wayne Dowdy to review the contract.
• Authorized the election commission to spend $6,800 on new office computers.
• Agreed to buy a $200 half-page black-and-white ad in Mississippi Supervisor Magazine.
• Approved travel advances of $181 each to eight tax collector employees and $321 each to two others to attend training at Clinton or Hattiesburg in September, and a $744 advance to sheriff’s deputy Scote Renfroe for training at Meridian.
• Approved travel for the board to attend a fall educational workshop at Vicksburg in October.
• Approved payments of $14,925 to Neel-Schaffer for June invoices and $41,592 to Paul Jackson & Son for work on the Old Holmesville Courthouse project. “I was out there this weekend and it really looks good,” board president Luke Brewer said.
• Noted the hiring of Esham O. Malone as a part-time sheriff’s deputy.
• Learned that the sheriff’s office will hold a National Take Back Initiative event Oct. 28 to let people dispose of unwanted, unused or expired medications at the office. Southwest Mississippi Narcotics Enforcement Unit also receives such medications every Monday morning at its headquarters.
