The McComb city board will make a decision on an interlocal agreement that could put many of Pike County’s unemployed to work in the effort to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The agreement involves the use of city equipment for a hazardous materials certification course at Southwest Mississippi Community College. McComb Fire Chief B.J. Nettles said the agreement will allow the replacement of city property if it is damaged during training.
“It’s my understanding that this hands-on training will be done by our employees,” said city administrator Quordiniah Lockley. “Our citizens who need a job may have an opportunity to get some training and go down and work in this recovery period.”
The classes are scheduled to begin Monday, and participants will receive the 40 hours of training necessary to assist in clean-up efforts.
“Where Southwest has the instructors to teach the 24-hour classroom session, the city of McComb and the fire department have the equipment to conduct the 16-hour hands-on class,” Nettles said. “There are over 19,000 first responders on the Coast. They cannot fulfill the need for this class down there.
“These people will come from all over, and they will stay in our hotels, eat in our facilities and we will be able to teach.”
BP has contracted Neel-Schaffer to assist in the clean-up of oil leaking into the Gulf after the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig exploded on April 20.
“It will take bodies there watching, monitoring, documenting, recording different aspects of that clean-up,” said Neel Schaffer representative Keith Lott.
“We have to put a lot of people on the ground as fast as we can that has this certification. We’re going to pay someone to train these people for us. We would like to do that through the college,” Lott said.
Lott said he ran the proposal by Mayor Zach Patterson, who said he fully supported it. Patterson did not attend the work session. Selectmen Melvin Joe Johnson and Danny Esch also were absent.
Lott also pointed out that without the agreement, the class will fail because of the hands-on training requirement.
“I can get 24 hours at the college because they can do the classroom participation either online or with an instructor,” Lott said. “What they cannot do without your help is the 16 hours of hands-on training. If Neel-Schaeffer only gets 24 hours through the college, that really does us no good.”
Nettles said the agreement will benefit the city as well.
“You will get your city employees — public works, fire department — the continuing education units that are required by us to continue our hazardous materials certification at no cost from the college.”
Southwest is scheduled to offer four 25-person training courses. That number could increase in time.
“This is going to be a long, drawn-out process of cleaning this up,” Lott said. “Pending approval, I would say that might grow.”
