Notes from Winston Co. Board of Supervisor's Meeting

The Winston County Board of Supervisors met in the first meeting of the New Year on Tuesday. The members chose District 5 Supervisor Larry Duran as the Board president and District 3 Supervisor Mike Peterson as Vice-President.  Duran was not physically present at the meeting due to health issues but was able to participate by telephone. He thanked everyone for their thoughts and prayers during his illness.  The board dealt with the following issues:

·         Re-employed Hugh Hathorn as Board Attorney and as attorney for the Winston-Choctaw Regional Correctional Facility.

·         Received and reviewed reports of receipts, expenditures and fund balances.

·         Approved the bonds for all newly elected and appointed county officials.

·         Ratified existing contracts held with the county.

·         Approved the 2^nd qtr appropriations for the Sheriff’s Dept and the Tax Assessor/Collector but not to exceed 50% of the total budget at the end of the quarter.

·         Approved requisitions and cash requests for the energy grant – (county to pay the invoices totaling $6882.86 to be reimbursed from the EECBG grant)

·         Approved the Circuit Clerk and Chancery Clerk’s request for the county to not pay PERS portion for fee income derived by the respective offices. This will result in a cost reduction for the county.

·         The Board discussed the County Engineer’s position and that of arson investigator Keith Alexander as well.

·         Approved multiple purchase orders from various departments.

·         Recommended that Economic Development Director Gerald Mills develop a proposal in conjunction with Red Hills Winery owner James Davis for a lease/utility arrangement to be discussed at the next board meeting.

·         Reviewed the proposals for phone service at the correctional facility from CCI and Securious. There was much debate concerning the particulars of the contract which resulted in a 3-2 vote to approve a 4 year contract with the existing provider CCI. Supervisors Peterson and Warner were opposed to the contract based upon some of the financial provisions.

·         The Board went into executive session to discuss personnel matters for new and existing employees in the different county departments.

Full information on the meeting is available from the Chancery Clerk’s Office. The Board’s next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 17^th as the regular meeting day (Monday) is a holiday.