LIBERTY — A lumber company is looking to locate in the Liberty area, Amite County supervisors learned Thursday.
The supervisors discussed the potential new business with Pike County Economic Development Director Britt Herrin during an executive session at the board’s Wednesday meeting.
While Herrin did not name the company, officials have said that Lincoln County lumber company owner Cortez Byrd had been considering buying the shuttered Sam Mabry Lumber Co. sawmill in Liberty.
Company officials did not return calls seeking comment.
Herrin said after the meeting that company officials are seeking several incentives from the county, including property tax exemptions and a Freeport warehouse exemption, which exempts inventory going out of state from state taxes.
He said company officials approached him about talking with the Amite County board.
“They knew we (Pike County) have an agreement to help Amite
County,” he said.
Herrin said he expects the unnamed company to announce it is coming to the county within the next few weeks, pending the resolution of legal matters involving the acquisition of an existing company.
“They are close to resolving everything,” he said. “I’m excited about this. It means jobs, and it will benefit the whole region.”
In a related matter, Glenn Wilson of Gloster asked the board to authorize a letter to the Mississippi Department of Corrections seeking to be “included on the list” for the next prison or prison expansion to be built by the state.
“I’m not saying that we ask the state to build a prison here,” Wilson said, “only that the state consider Amite County when it gets ready to build another prison or expand. It will be up to the state whether do it here or not.”
He passed out copies of an e-mail to MDOC Commissioner Christopher Epps about considering the county for a prison.
An MDOC spokesman said the Legislature determines where a prison will be located and where it will be built, and the board needs to pursue a state prison through the area’s legislators.
Wilson said a prison would be one way of providing jobs for Amite County residents.
Supervisor Jackie Whittington said the matter will be referred to the county’s economic development board for consideration.
“That would be in their area,” Whittington said. “We’ll let them look at it and give us a report, and then we’ll make a decision.”
In other action, the board:
• Approved paying $75 dues for Murry Toney’s membership in the International Association of Arson Investigators Inc.
• Authorized transferring Ellis Jackson from part-time roll-off driver to part-time driver at a rate of $9.74 an hour in the county Solid Waste Department.
In a related solid waste matter, the board approved transferring Wayne Winfield from driver to roll-off driver at $1,827 a month.
• Approved paying $75 dues for Emergency Management Director Sam Walsh’s membership in Association of Flood Plain Managers of Mississippi.
In other emergency management matters, the board transferred a portable radio from the volunteer fire departments inventory to Coroner James Magee, and authorized deleting four obsolete radios from the emergency management department’s inventory.
• Authorized sending deputy circuit clerk Debbie Kirkland to attend a redistricting training program at the Secretary of State’s office in December.
• Approved purchasing extra computer ports for the tax assessor/tax collector’s office to accommodate computer upgrades for a new state car tag system.
In a related matter, the board approved moving Brittaney Deese from part-time to full-time deputy in the assessor/collector’s office at $1,300 a month.
• Approved personnel changes in the sheriff’s department, including the transfer of Ray Lofton from communications officer to jail administrator at $8.95 an hour, the hirings of Angie Lehmann as communications supervisor at $8.95 an hour and Grant McCurley as part-time jailer at $7.25 an hour, and the transfer of Robert Newton from jail administrator to part-time jailer.
Newton resigned as jail administrator to take a similar position in Wilkinson County, but will continue to work part time in Amite County, chief deputy Bill Vallely said.
In other matters involving the sheriff’s department, the board approved the transfer of four department vehicles to the county’s central barn to be sold at auction.
The board also removed two computers, two grass trimmers, a cell phone, riding lawn mower and two cameras from the department’s inventory. The computers will be sold at auction.
The board also authorized transferring eight hand-held radios from the sheriff’s department to the E911 inventory, and changing the serial number on a Glock .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, which initially had the wrong serial number assigned to it, and approved the transfer of a fuel pump to a gasoline tank operated by the building and grounds department.
• Authorized deleting a chain saw from the District 4 inventory. The saw, which was being repaired in McComb, was stolen.
• Learned several homestead exemption challenges were denied by the Mississippi Department of Revenue, ,including those of Jessica Andrews, Cora Collins McCall, Brendan McCaskill and Rudolph Weathersby Sr. An objection by Dorothy Nunnery was upheld, Chancery Clerk Ronny Taylor said.
• Approved a public records request for electronic data except employee information filed by the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.
• Deleted a damaged radio from Magee’s inventory.
