McComb police Chief Scott McKenzie told the city board at its Jan. 24 meeting that his officers had issued no citations for smoking in vehicles with children in them since the ban went into effect Sept. 29, 2016.
He said a copy of the ordinance had reached his office only within the previous week but he had since instructed his officers to enforce the ordinance. He noted, however, that parking citations had dropped recently, and that it was “purely a manpower thing.”
He said that most shifts were staffed one person short and officers were focusing on “things that are causing us the most trouble,” including burglaries, which are “kicking us in the teeth right now.”
Selectman Albert Eubanks suggested to McKenzie, “the only thing (officers) have to do is go to Walmart,” where he sees “people smoking in cars with kids all day long.”
Asked this morning about the delay in transmitting the new ordinance to the police department, Mayor Whitney Rawlings said, “The mayor should have sent it, and I didn’t.”
Selectmen also authorized on Tuesday the hiring of Benton Wayne Roland as a probationary police officer.
McKenzie noted that Roland is the son of former deputy Chief Charles Roland.
The board also approved the appointment of four probationary firefighters, helping fire Chief Gary McKenzie fulfill a commitment he made when he stepped into his job Jan. 1. He said at the time that filling the four vacancies was an urgent priority. The new firefighters are Curtis Miller, Donovan Peters, John Paul Price and Terry Wilkinson.
The board also:
• Agreed to advertise vacancies on two boards, McComb School District Board of Trustees and the planning commission. The school board post is for a five-year term ending Feb. 28, 2022. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 15. The seat is currently held by Eliece Rayborn, who said she would ask to be reappointed. The planning commission has three pending vacancies, all for three-year terms ending Feb. 28, 2020. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 15. Two of the seats are held by Steve Cox and Phillip Thompson; the third is vacant.
• Accepted donations for the McComb Animal Shelter of $200 from Edgewood Mall Developers LTD and $100 from Jennifer Greer.
• Authorized a $12,603 payment to the Pike County Sheriff’s Office for the housing of city inmates in August.
• Agreed to submit a resolution to the state Legislature supporting the continuation of the hotel/motel tax. The 3 percent levy began in 2011 with approval of the Legislature and governor and by a vote by the people of McComb, but it must be renewed in Jackson every three years. Proceeds from the tax go toward recreation projects.
• Agreed to issue $3.2 million in general obligation bonds for resurfacing streets. This was a final procedural step in a process that began in early December, after Mayor Whitney Rawlings introduced the plan. After the plan was advertised in the newspaper and no one registered formal protests, the city may now sell the bonds.
• Adopted a resolution in support of legislation renaming a seven-mile section of Interstate 55 the “Bo Diddley Memorial Highway.” Reps. David Myers and Angela Cockerham introduced the bill earlier this month.
• Agreed to swap some water accounts with the Town of Summit for properties that receive sewer service from one municipality and water from the other. Under the arrangement, properties on George Edward Road and Lucas Lane that now receive water from Summit would become McComb accounts, and water accounts on Honeysuckle Trail would switch to the Summit water system.
