Published: December 17, 2007 11:04 am      

Is Pearl River County on the verge of another north-south struggle?

Will Pearl River County enter into another struggle between the northern part of the county and the southern part of the county over services and other amenities with the installation of a virtually new board of supervisors?

It certainly appears so. Supervisor-elect Hudson Holliday of Poplarville has hinted in a radio interview that since people drive to casinos and other places for entertainment, they can drive to Poplarville for county services. To that end, he is threatening, when he takes office, to derail the replacement building for the Chimney Square structure that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Yes, he says he wants a building in Picayune, just not the one that has been 18 months in negotiation for funding from FEMA and MEMA and in the design stage. He believes he can take some of the money that MEMA, as reported in a Nov. 29th article in the Picayune Item, made plain was only for replacing the Chimney Square building and using it to build office buildings in Poplarville and Millard. Unfortunately, to try to change horses in the middle of the stream, or building designs as in this case, at this point probably will jeopardize the federal funding for the project, which means the building won’t be built because the county probably won’t come up with the funding for such a building on its on.

He has charged that the old board, despite the members’ concerted efforts for the past 18 months, is rushing to have the building constructed with little thought. He also is accusing the old board of illegally pursuing the construction of the building, though it is being constructed under the emergency powers it has because of Hurricane Katrina and the destruction she caused.

Apparently, one of his main complaints is that the new building contains courtroom space, something allowed in Picayune by a 1991 law passed as a local and private bill. Further, with the growth of the county, especially on the south end, Pearl River County soon will need more courtroom space. It is only proper that such space be built where it is convenient to the largest part of the county’s population. Courtrooms in Picayune won’t move the courts full time to Picayune. The construction of that space simply will mean that both ends of the county will have the convenience of courtrooms.

This effort to derail the Chimney Square replacement building to us sounds like a desperate attempt to deny Picayune county services by a supervisor elected essentially from the northern part of the county, in other words, it appears he is firing the first shots in what may become a new north-south war in Pearl River County.

We don’t need that. The old board has worked hard, some members for eight years, to heal those old wounds by making the tough decision to locate a single Mississippi Health Department office, to replace inadequate and understaffed offices in Picayune and Poplarville, in a place where residents of both Poplarville and Picayune have to travel nearly equal distances for services.

A member of the board from the southern part of the county, the late Troy Stockstill, also proposed a county lake in the northern part of the county because he thought it would benefit the whole county. The lake has almost come into fruition through the efforts of Stockstill’s widow, Bettye, who succeeded him on the board, and the efforts of the other supervisor from the southern end of the county, Robert Thigpen. They also believed the lake would be good for the county as a whole.

The location of the new county jail and a justice courtroom in Millard also came about because of the unified efforts of an entire board of supervisors acting on behalf of the county as a whole.

Much has been done through compromise by the outgoing board to provide services and amenities equally for the whole county, even though well more than half of the county’s population resides in the southern part of the county.

If the new board falls under the sway of Mr. Holliday, much of this effort at compromise and equity over the past eight years may become a thing of the past.

We urge Mr. Holliday to stop and look at what he’s threatening and to drop his efforts to kill the Chimney Square building. We also urge he and the other members of the incoming board to carry on in the spirit of compromise and equity that was displayed by the old board through hard work and by putting aside personal egos and desires.