TYLERTOWN — Walthall County supervisors heard a pitch July 19 to start preparing for the 2020 federal census.
Paheadra Robinson, a partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau, urged the board to create a Complete Count Committee to promote participation in the coming census.
“2010 had one of the lowest participation rates ever,” Robinson said. “For every person that doesn’t participate, you lose up to $2,100” in federal funding.
She said Walthall County had one of the better participation rates in the state in 2010, at 72 percent.
Supervisor Shelton Stogner especially wanted to work on promoting the census.
“They said after the last census that I lost 350 people” from his district, Stogner said. “There’s no way I lost that many.”
Robinson said this will be the first census completed primarily online. Census takers will be dispatched to homes only after people who are believed to live there do not respond.
In other business, the board:
• Approved seeking quotes to replace carpet in the justice court building with tile.
• OK’d issuing $150 to the justice court clerk’s office for petty cash to provide change. Previously, the first people in the office in the morning would be required to have correct change.
• Accepted bids for gravel hauling from B&B Hauling and Bryan Holmes. B&B was the low bidder at $5.50 per cubic yard up to 20 miles and an additional 75 cents per mile above that. Holmes bid $7.50 per cubic yard.
• Exercised the buy-back option on a garbage truck for $63,000, leaving about $70,000 to pay for a replacement. The board also voted to purchase a new fire truck from Deep South Fire Truck in Seminary for $236,850.
• Approved travel for Supervisor Fred Magee Jr. to attend the Mississippi Policy Conference in Tunica.
• Allowed Sheriff Kyle Breland to dispose of surplus and recovered items not claimed by owners. Included are a patrol car, a Ford Explorer and a boat that Magee said Lawrence County supervisors would like to buy.
• Named former supervisor Pop Carr as the county’s veterans services officer, replacing the late Stanley Reeves.
