Supervisors Support Scenic By-Way, OTR Project and Push for Fine Collection

The Winston County Board of Supervisors met on Monday, May 21 in a regularly scheduled session. In addition to typical business, they dealt with the following items of interest:

• The board met with officials from the National Forest Service and the Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee Refuge who were there to show their support for the possible scenic by-way to extend across Winston County.  A project to pave the route from Choctaw Lake in Choctaw County to Bluff Lake is currently underway through the use of  public land highway funds and some state aid money as well. If accepted into the scenic by-ways program, the route will be called the Noxubee Hills Route. The scenic by-way classification will entail additional funds to construct restrooms,plaques,road signs, etc., for areas of historic interest along the highway. When completed, a paved route would extend from Choctaw Lake in Choctaw County all the way across Highway 25 and there would ultimately be a paved route all the way to Highway 45in Noxubee County. WWN will publish a copy of the scenic by-ways map as soon as one is available.
• Board was also introduced to Steve Reagan, who is now the new manager of the Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee Refuge. In addition to meeting Mr. Reagan, the board also met with assistant manager, Kimberly Sykes.
• There was a bid opening on the removal or purchase of the upright steel tank silos located at the old Spartus facility. There was only one bid received from Red Hills Salvage in the amount of $800 for removal. The Board took the bid under advisement and took no further action at this time.
• At 10:00, a public hearing was held on the modification of the Solid Waste Management Plan, which would effect the OTR Wheel Engineering Project. A change to the Solid Waste Plan is required before OTR Wheel Engineering can come in and operate a tire disposal facility. Robert McIntosh, a representative from OTR attended the meeting.  He indicated that OTR will operate the facility, which will be located on Griffin Industrial Drive once all local and state approvals are met. With timely approval at the state level, the facility could be operating within 6 months. The facility will be used to recycle tires of all kinds, with a capacity of 15,000 tires on hand at any given time. They will accept tires from within a 100 mile radius of Louisville. McIntosh indicated the facility will be accepting scrap tires and  processing these to recover carbon black, steel and oil from the tires. The facility will operate three reactors over a 24/hr period. They have a current facility in Rome, Georgia, with an expansion plan for Texas, Nevada and Nebraska. Natural gas will be first used and then the gas produced by the breaking down of the tires will be used to power the plant. The facility will be inspected by the MDEQ on a monthly basis and should create about 25 jobs. McIntosh also indicated the possible location of a manufacturing plant to produce the equipment used in these types of facilities and that it could create 200 jobs. McIntosh indicated that Louisville is being considered for this facility.
• The Board also heard from Martha Allen of Community Counseling who wanted to make the board aware that this was National Mental Health Month and  provide some statistics concerning mental health. She indicated that one in four people in the U.S. today have some type of mental illness. She indicated that their seven county region had 5000 active cases of which 523 were located in Winston County. The budget for Community Counseling in Winston County is $2 million.
• The board approved the publication of names of individuals who have unpaid fines in the district court system. People who have fines that are 48 months or older will be offered a 30 day amnesty upon publication in the local newspaper, however if fines are not paid within said time a warrant for their arrest will be issued.
• Supervisor Peterson noted that the Fire Association funds balance was in the negative amount of $2138.54. The Board questioned why the  association was in negative balance and it was determined that review of the accounting would need to be checked. To temporarily cover the shortfall, $3500 from the Common County Fund was transfered to the Fire Association account.

The next County Board meeting is scheduled for June 4. To see the full agenda of this meeting it will be available in the Chancery Clerk's office upon approval by the board.